The Crow Remake

[RAYNYSC]

Hey Gene,

Have you heard anything about this?


Blade’ director to remake ‘Crow’
By Mark Pollard • December 16, 2008

Tired of remakes? Hollywood isn’t. Variety reports that Stephen Norrington, director of BLADE (1998) is coming out of a five-year exile following the disaster that was LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN to write and direct a remake of THE CROW (1994), the comic-to-film revenger originally starring Brandon Lee.

Relativity Media, the producers of THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM are presently negotiating for rights to produce the film.

The original CROW was directed by Alex Proyas and starred Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee’s son. Based on a comic book series by James O’Barr, the film was a gothic and highly stylized revenger about a musician named Eric Draven who is murdered and comes back to life for payback. It was a surprise hit that would have been Lee’s breakthrough role had he not tragically died during filming as a result of a prop gun accidentally being loaded with live rounds and fired at the actor causing fatal injuries.

Proyas’ 1994 film was followed with three lesser sequels from other filmmakers and a short-lived TV series starring Mark Dacascos

Speaking to Variety, Norrington said his version will be different. “It will be realistic, hard-edged and mysterious, almost documentary-style.”

[Zenshiite]

Why remake a movie that I practically consider to be perfection?

****, they already did 2 or 3 "sequels" that were basically remakes, AND a TV series that was a remake.

No effing point.

[GeneChing]

...There's an almost mythic quality if you watch the Crow as a double bill with Game of (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46746)Death (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48196).

Hadn't heard about a new Crow, RAYNYSC, but we did hear about Shinjuku Incident (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51787) and Junior Soldiers. (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52569) You can do a search by forum and find these pretty easily. Thanks for the updates on it.

[RAYNYSC]

Cool thanks Gene I'll do that sorry didn't mean to make more work for you as I know your busy doing other things with the forum & stuff by the way you can call me Ray for short....

[jethro]

I couldn't agree more Zenshiite. I could understand if it was a movie from 30 years ago or if it was a cool idea but not that great of a movie, but The Crow is a masterpiece. No more remakes or sequels. The TV show was a good effort, but no more!

[Zenshiite]

Right? What's with all the remakes?

It's like this Friday the 13th "remake." Why not just do Friday the 13th part 15: Jason returns to Camp Crystal Lake? That's basically what it is... instead of splicing the second and third movies together with fancy new cars and all the teen stars from the CW...

[GeneChing]

And y'all dissed the remake of The Karate Kid. (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48261) :rolleyes:

Exclusive: Nick Cave to Rewrite 'The Crow' Remake (http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/exclusive-nick-cave-rewrite-crow-remake-19578)
By Jeff Sneider
Published: July 27, 2010
EXCLUSIVE

The last we heard about Relativity Media's remake of "The Crow," producer Ed Pressman told MTV that an offer was out to a "major actor" and director Stephen Norrington ("Blade") had finished a "terrific" screenplay that would be set in two locations: "the southwest -- the Mexico/Arizona area -- and an urban [setting] -- Detroit or Pittsburgh or something like that."

Well apparently Norrington's take wasn't quite "terrific" enough, as Pressman recently told TheWrap that none other than iconic musician and acclaimed screenwriter Nick Cave has come on to rewrite the script.

Hiring Cave to rewrite Norrington's script is a bold move, but it may prove to be worth it in the long run, as Cave may be the perfect choice to help resurrect the fading franchise.

He made his screenwriting debut with John Hillcoat's 1988 prison drama "Ghosts … of the Civil Dead," but what really has this lifelong "Crow" fan excited is Cave's impressive work on Hillcoat's gritty Australian Western "The Proposition," which was awesome.

While Cave's record label may not like to publicize his other career as a successful screenwriter, there's no doubt that he is in major demand, especially after having been named one of Variety's 10 Screenwriters to Watch in 2006.

Last year, it was announced that Cave had written "The Promised Land," an adaptation of Matt Bondurant's bootlegging novel "The Wettest County in the World." Hillcoat would once again direct, and Shia LaBeouf was attached to star. There were reports that the project had "fallen apart" earlier this year but it seems like the film is still in development at Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher's Red Wagon Entertainment.

More recently, actor Andy Serkis revealed that he and Cave are planning a motion-capture version of "The Threepenny Opera." Although it's unclear whether Cave will be writing the screenplay or simply contributing music for the feature adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's classic 1928 musical/operetta, it's nonetheless an ambitious project that shows what kind of material Cave is interested in.

Several years ago, Variety reported that Cave and Hillcoat were collaborating on "Death of a Ladies' Man," an English tragicomedy named after the Leonard Cohen song that was set to star "The Proposition's" Ray Winstone as a sex addicted salesman who is forced to take his young son on the road with him after his wife commits suicide.

And before that, Russell Crowe asked Cave to write a sequel to "Gladiator," which would have ended with "a 20-minute war sequence that ended up in Vietnam, and then in a toilet in the Pentagon, with [Crowe] as this rage-fueled eternal warrior." Unfortunately, the studio rejected the script, as it proved impossible to finance.

Expect an announcement in the coming weeks about who will land the coveted role of Eric Draven in the reconceptualized remake of "The Crow," which will feature the titular bird as more of a full-fledged character than in Alex Proyas' 1994 original.

[GeneChing]

Nick Cave Taking On 'The Crow,' So Lady Gaga Should Tackle 'Star Wars' (http://newsroom.mtv.com/2010/07/27/nick-cave-the-crow/)
Posted 20 hrs ago by Kyle Anderson in Music

In addition to being an iconic star in the underground music scene, Nick Cave has also carved out an incredible niche for himself in the film world. He worked on the music for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," penned the screenplay for the 2005 indie hit "The Proposition" and contributed to the Leonard Cohen tribute film "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man." His most recent project is his most intriguing yet. According to the Wrap, Cave is working on a screenplay for a remake of "The Crow," the 1994 action film directed by Alex Proyas about an undead avenger (originally played by Brandon Lee). The original flick was a Goth-punk asskicker of a movie that was incredibly dark and featured a killer soundtrack (featuring Nine Inch Nails, the Cure, Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against the Machine and the Jesus and Mary Chain), and the new version (to be directed by "Blade" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" helmer Stephen Norrington) should have the same kind of dark underbelly and cutthroat attitude.

Cave has experience in screenwriting (he also wrote a sequel to "Gladiator" that was never made), but lack of experience doesn't necessarily disqualify the following musicians from dipping into the screenwriting game. Here are six musicians and the remakes they should attempt.

Lady Gaga, "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace"
No, seriously. It'll totally work. Even among hardcore "Star Wars" fanatics, everybody pretty much agrees that "The Phantom Menace" is a mess, full of preposterous exposition, endless scenes of parliamentary procedure and far too much Jar Jar Binks. Considering the elaborate, otherwordly story that Lady Gaga tells over the course of her Monster Ball shows, why not let her dream up some stuff that might actually reset the "Star Wars" universe properly?

Dave Grohl, "Mallrats"
The premise of Kevin Smith's second film — two slackers hit up the mall to try to win back the hearts of their respective exes — is primed for comedy greatness, but the finished product is somewhat airless and flat. Hand the reigns over to the manic, fun-loving frontman of Foo Fighters. He's got a killer sense of humor, a great sense of play and enough heart to totally make it work.

Wayne Coyne, "The Wizard of Oz"
As the frontman for the Flaming Lips, Coyne already builds elaborate fantasy worlds full of wondrous hallucinations and child-like fear. If that doesn't describe "The Wizard of Oz," then nothing does. Coyne also gets bonus points for having written the Flaming Lips' film "Christmas on Mars," still one of the most surreal experiments to hit the cinemas in the past decade.

Diddy, "Scarface"
It's one of Diddy's favorite flicks, and it's dying for a remake. Though plenty of gangster narratives have borrowed elements from Brian De Palma's original 1983 epic, Diddy could lend his particular voice to a brand-new version that updates Tony Montana for the 21st century.

Craig Finn, "Can't Hardly Wait"
The 1998 original is an excellent slice of end-of-the-millennium nostalgia, but it's a little too scrubbed around the edges to be considered accurate. Enter Craig Finn, frontman of the Hold Steady. He already constructs deep narratives about kids getting too high and running into trouble on the comedown, and he would also get to indulge in his obsession with the Replacements (the film is named after one of the band's best songs). Also, that scene where Jenna Elfman visits Ethan Embry feels like it was taken out of a Hold Steady song already.

Katy Perry, "She's All That"
It's an old story that has been remade many times (it's based on "Taming of the Shrew"), but in an ideal world, Perry would do something drastic and unpredictable like reverse the genders of the characters so that two women are betting they can remake a guy. Now that's a movie that could get a green light.
I confess. I'd be very into Lady Gaga's version of Phantom Menace...:o

[doug maverick]

agreeed....it be total avant garde...and tons of nudity,lol. george lucas would be into it. well maybe not the nudity part.

[GeneChing]

As the Crow? I've been thinking they should offer this to Jaycee Chan. He'd make a good emo Crow. :p

Mark Wahlberg Offered Lead Role in 'The Crow' Remake (http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/22096)
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
By: MrDisgusting

Bloody Disgusting has confirmed exclusively that Mark Wahlberg was offered the lead role in Relativity Media's The Crow, a remake of the 1994 film that starred Brandon Lee as a man (Eric Draven) brutally murdered that comes back to life as an undead avenger of his and his fiancée's murder. The film was an adaptation of James O'Barr's incredible comic series. Iconic musician and acclaimed screenwriter Nick Cave has been working on a rewrite with Stephen Norrington (Blade, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ) attached to direct. The new tale is said to take place in Detroit. Now, the offer has been made, therefore Wahlberg could (and hopefully will) decline. I can't say this news has me swimming in excitement.

[doug maverick]

i dont see wahlberg taking this role. he has been staying far far away from the whole superhero thing so...i think he will continue that trend. jaycee chan??? comeongene that was just scarey...lol

[GeneChing]

I appreciate that you can appreciate my sense of humor about that, Doug. ;)

[GeneChing]

How about Jay chou, Doug? I know! Jayden Smith!! ;)

Exclusive: Mark Wahlberg Not Starring in 'The Crow' Remake (http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/11/22/mark-wahlberg-the-crow-remake/)
By Todd Gilchrist. Posted Nov 22nd 2010 6:27PM

Mark Wahlberg, star and producer of the new movie 'The Fighter,' told Cinematical that contrary to earlier reports, he is not going to be a part of the forthcoming remake of 'The Crow.' "We never committed to making the movie," Wahlberg said in a one-on-one interview in Los Angeles on Saturday. "They talked to me about it and there was a director attached who I was a fan of, and he's no longer doing it. We just thought about it – 'is there something cool to be done there?' But we're not committed to making the movie."

In the meantime, Wahlberg has two other upcoming projects that he is starring in, including a remake of an acclaimed but little-seen Icelandic film from 2008. "We're doing a movie called 'Contraband' in January, which is a remake of an Icelandic movie called 'Reykjavik Rotterdam,' Wahlberg revealed. "It's very, very cool, kind of like a heist thriller - very smart, very original, aside from the fact that it's a remake. And nobody saw it, so it will be something different for American audiences."

Additionally, Wahlberg is starring in an upcoming film to be directed by 'Family Guy' creator Seth MacFarlane. "Then [I'm] doing another comedy with Seth MacFarlane – his directorial debut. I'm just off-the-charts excited about that."

[doug maverick]

jay chou...is a bad actor in two languages. his english is horrendous. jayden lol, i doubt his parents would take the role. you never know with that **** kid. lol.

[GeneChing]

Well, not here to the office but to the S.F. Bay Area. He's got a NYE show scheduled at the HP Pavilion. $100 just to get in the door (not counting parking). Unfortunately, I don't work the HP, but that's just as well. I've got another date for NYE.

Jay Chou (http://www.hppsj.com/schedule/)
No video or audio recorders. No cameras. Subject to change.
Comerica Bank Club TBD
Restaurant TBD
Arena Setup: 31-Dec-10
ShowTime: 9:00 PM
Doors Open: 8:00PM
Approx. Length:
Seating Chart $101-$301
On Sale: NOW
Discounts:
Parking: $20

[GeneChing]

'The Crow' to fly again with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/the-crow-to-fly-again-with-juan-carlos-fresnadillo-2265564.html)
Saturday, 9 April 2011

http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/dynamic/00595/000_par1275804_d7d7_595802t.jpg
Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo will resurrect 'The Crow.'

The Spanish director of 28 Weeks Later, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, has signed on to resurrect The Crow, starring the late Brandon Lee, son of martial arts master Bruce Lee.

The 1994 adaptation of the comic book series tells the story of a murdered man who comes back to life to avenge the killing of his fiancé.

The studio is referring to the remake as a "re-invention" of the initial gothic version. The script will be re-written by musician Nick Cave, who also wrote The Proposition with Guy Pearce.

The cast has yet to be chosen, though Mark Wahlberg was considered but passed, according to The Playlist. The film is scheduled to begin production this fall.

Fresnadillo is currently completing Intruders, a horror thriller starring Clive Owen (Duplicity).

The original film's producer Edward R. Pressman will come on board to co-produce with Fresnadillo's producing partner Enrique López Lavigne of Apaches Entertainment in hopes of creating a similar impact on a contemporary audience.
You got to check out the new issue (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1088339), Doug. Some fan busted my chops for my coverage on Jay Chou in Channeling Kato: Jay Chou dons the iconic mask in GREEN HORNET (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=942).

[GeneChing]

Bradley Cooper Eyeing Starring Role in 'Crow' Remake (Exclusive) (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/bradley-cooper-eyeing-starring-role-177481)
The actor is in early negotiations to star in the Relativity film, being directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.
April 12
6:14 PM 4/12/2011 by Borys Kit

Bradley Cooper is in early negotiations to star in Relativity’s remake of The Crow, being directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.

In the adaptation of the gritty black-and-white indie comic by artist James O'Barr, Cooper will play a rock musician who is murdered while trying to save his fiancée from thugs. He is resurrected by supernatural forces and seeks revenge. The role was originally played by Brandon Lee, who was killed by a freak accident during production in 1993.

Relativity is flying fast with Crow, with Fresnadillo only officially boarding the project a week ago. The Spanish director of 28 Weeks Later is said to have met with Cooper in Spain recently, where the two hit it off and shared a vision for the character and the film. Relativity would not confirm the talks but sources say Cooper, currently in theaters in Relativity’s hit thriller Limitless, is keen to board the project.

The new film is being produced by Edward R. Pressman, Jeff Most, Relativity's CEO Ryan Kavanaugh and Apaches Entertainment's Enrique Lopez Lavigne and Belen Atienza.

Production is targeted to start in the fall. Relativity’s Tucker Tooley (The Fighter) will serve as executive producer. José Ibáñez, Pressman Film Corporation’s Jon Katz and Apaches’ Jesús de la Vega will serve as co-producers.

Cooper, repped by CAA, next appears in The Hangover Part II, which opens May 26.This so doesn't work for me...

[Zenshiite]

Bradley Cooper is no Eric Draven. And I like the guy just fine.

The problem is that the Crow is legendary, in part because it was an adaptation of a cult classic graphic novel and because it was Brandon Lee's last film. Brandon did a great job on the movie, even if it does have some weaknesses.

They ought to do a straight adaptation of the graphic novel and set it in the 80s.

I need to read that book again. it's been a very long while since I read it.

[MightyB]

Cooper and Wahlberg are both too old. They have to find someone darker- and in their mid to late 20s for the role.

Honestly- I don't like the idea of remaking this movie. Like Zenshiite says, it's a legendary movie and not one that should be remade. Remember how awful the Crow 2 was? And that was nothing but a cheap remake.

I'd rather them just take the concept... that of a murdered person being resurrected by a spirit crow for revenge - and run with a new story line.

Why can't it be a Crow movie, but instead of Detroit and Draven, be Juarez - a family guy/ case of mistaken identity, and a bunch of suit wearing cartel overlords? Still have a murder, still have a spirit crow, still have revenge - but have it be a new movie.

[MasterKiller]

One of the few movies I ever walked out during. The remake can't be worse.

[JamesC]

I agree with MK.

The movie was absolutely terrible, imo. I know it was Brandon Lee and all, but it still sucked big fat ones.

[doug maverick]

i whole heartedly disagree with that statement. its not even an opinion its just a flat out lie. cult yes...legendary hell no. gone with the wind was legenday, casablanca legendary, the killer legendary, freaking 36th chamber legendary....that not so much..still liked it.

[GeneChing]

The whole storyline about coming back from the dead and then having Brandon get killed in the making - there was this creepy recursive element. It makes a very eerie double feature with Game of Death.

[Zenshiite]

Cooper and Wahlberg are both too old. They have to find someone darker- and in their mid to late 20s for the role.

Honestly- I don't like the idea of remaking this movie. Like Zenshiite says, it's a legendary movie and not one that should be remade. Remember how awful the Crow 2 was? And that was nothing but a cheap remake.

I'd rather them just take the concept... that of a murdered person being resurrected by a spirit crow for revenge - and run with a new story line.

Why can't it be a Crow movie, but instead of Detroit and Draven, be Juarez - a family guy/ case of mistaken identity, and a bunch of suit wearing cartel overlords? Still have a murder, still have a spirit crow, still have revenge - but have it be a new movie.

Hate to break it to you, but the Crow 2, and 3, and 4, were all essentially what you've asked for in that last paragraph. All were different guys, slightly different situations, in different cities. They sucked.

Also, so did the tv series they did with the Eric Draven character.

They should just leave it alone. The only thing that might have merit is an anime version of the comic. Complete with the music of the era that is quoted in the book. Joy Division FTW!

[doug maverick]

Hate to break it to you, but the Crow 2, and 3, and 4, were all essentially what you've asked for in that last paragraph. All were different guys, slightly different situations, in different cities. They sucked.

Also, so did the tv series they did with the Eric Draven character.

They should just leave it alone. The only thing that might have merit is an anime version of the comic. Complete with the music of the era that is quoted in the book. Joy Division FTW!

i disagree movies like this should be updated every ten years pr so.

[Sardinkahnikov]

And the quest to remake every movie ever made goes on...

I dunno, I liked the original Crow, mostly because of the feel and that "early 90's" thing they had going on - the decadent urban gothic scenario was very appealing, if you like that sort of stuff.

[goju]

Though the dialogue was pretty crappy the first crow was pretty good largely because someof the actors were fantastic and saved it

i enjoyed the second one and the series but everything past that was god awful

the third movie had a guy that looked like ramon the pool boy from seinfeld and the other one the guy looked like a fat butch lesbian :D

This doesnt reboot doesnt strike me as helping any lol

and now they are going to ruin the original highlander film again too:rolleyes:

[Lucas]

and now they are going to ruin the original highlander film again too:rolleyes:

as long as they dont have a spaniard with a english accent it cant be taht much worse lol

[doug maverick]

as long as they dont have a spaniard with a english accent it cant be taht much worse lol

you mean a Spaniard with a scottish accent.

[goju]

as long as they dont have a spaniard with a english accent it cant be taht much worse lol

oh they will! apparently hundreds of years ago everyone talked with a english
accent. :D

Vinne jones is set to be the kurgan:eek:

[GeneChing]

...the comic. This is off a press release that I just got from IDW.


O'Barr Returns to Comics with a New CROW Series!

The Spirit of Vengeance Goes on a Time-Traveling Journey This December

San Diego, CA (October 4, 2012) – IDW Publishing is thrilled to announce that The Crow’s original creator, James O’Barr will be launching a brand-new story featuring the vengeful avian guide, THE CROW: SKINNING THE WOLVES, a three-issue miniseries set to debut this December. Fans of O’Barr’s dark signature style will be delighted to see him backed by co-artist Jim Terry with a story woven of the same supernatural mystique that made The Crow a favorite of fans worldwide.

“I’ve been wanting to see a new Crow project from James O’Barr for a lot longer than we’ve had the Crow license,” said Chris Ryall, IDW’s Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief, “and what James has lined up for Skinning the Wolves and beyond is definitely delivering on those expectations.”

Set in a European concentration camp in 1945, Skinning the Wolves investigates a world where the dark harbinger of vengeance is dispatched in response to one of history’s greatest atrocities and the ultimate evil that perpetrated it.

"This is a story I've had planned for ages; 20 years maybe. It’s a tough tightrope to walk, using a concentration camp as a setting for a story, but I took care in not exploiting the situation for entertainment purposes. I did layouts and a rough story outline, but got sidetracked with the increasing popularity of the original film and graphic novel of The Crow and never found the time to finish it,” said O’Barr. “I met Jim Terry a few years ago and was really truly impressed with his Eisneresque style and thought it would be perfect for him. He’s gone above and beyond my expectations and I'm very proud of him and this book."

“I couldn't have asked for a better story to work on, and it has been thrilling to see it develop into what I feel will be a truly special book,” said Terry. “There are many, many titles on the stands these days, but I believe SKINNING THE WOLVES will be different from them all--not from a place of hubris, but from genuine excitement over what it's become.”

Full of the dark, challenging questions and ideas that have propelled The Crow to international acclaim, Skinning the Wolves is sure to be a gritty spectacle; one not to be missed by any comics fans, macabre justice enthusiasts, or those in between. 


Veteran producer Edward R. Pressman, producer of the 1994 smash hit film The Crow, together with Relativity Media and Dimension Films, is at work on a reinvention of the original film, which explores its own unique storyline separate from the comic book, with F. Javier Gutierrez (Before the Fall) attached to direct from a screenplay by Jesse Wigutow and Marc Klein. Pressman licensed the comic book rights to IDW. The deal was brokered by Dan Kletzky of Entertainment Licensing Associates.

THE CROW: SKINNING THE WOLVES #1 (of 3) is 32 pages, full color, and will be in stores in December. Diamond code: OCT120354.

Visit IDWPublishing.com to learn more about the company and its top-selling books. IDW can also be found at http://www.facebook.com/#!/idwpublishing and http://tumblr.idwpublishing.com/ and on Twitter at @idwpublishing.

About IDW Publishing
IDW is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks, based in San Diego, California. Renowned for its diverse catalog of licensed and independent titles, IDW publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the industry, including: Hasbro’s The TRANSFORMERS and G.I. JOE, Paramount’s Star Trek; HBO’s True Blood; the BBC’s DOCTOR WHO; Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Toho’s Godzilla; Wizards of the Coasts Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons; and the Eisner-Award winning Locke & Key series, created by best-selling author Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez. IDW is also home to the Library of American Comics imprint, which publishes classic comic reprints, and Yoe! Books, a partnership with Yoe! Studio.

IDW’s critically- and fan-acclaimed series are continually moving into new mediums. Currently, Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Disney are creating a feature film based on World War Robot, while Michael Bay‘s Platinum Dunes and Sony are bringing Zombies vs. Robots to film.

###

[MightyB]

I've seen the newest comics and they're pretty terrible.


I don't think you guys understood my previous comment... In Crow 2,3,4,5,6,7,8... they always did the same movie. Same bad guys, same make up, same Goth feel... same everything. What I was saying is that you can resurrect a guy, he'd have no idea about the previous guys so he wouldn't do the theatrical make up thing, the bad guys don't have to be metal head reject sadists... they can be Russian mobsters in track suits, and the crow could just be an undead person who's p!ssed. ¿Comprende?

[GeneChing]

I totally poached this off Doug's facebook feed. :p

James McAvoy Circling The Crow Remake? (http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/175205-james-mcavoy-circling-the-crow-remake)
by Spencer Perry
February 25, 2013

It was over a year ago that F. Javier Gutiérrez signed on to direct the remake of the James O'Barr comic The Crow for Dimension Films and since then updates on the film have been virtually non-existent. Today, Bloody-Disgusting is reporting that X-Men: First Class star James McAvoy is in talks to join the film as its protagonist Eric Draven. Bradley Cooper was up for the role when the film was being helmed by 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and other actors that almost landed the part include Mark Wahlberg and Channing Tatum.

The Crow adaptation will be a gritty reboot of the iconic character Eric Draven, who returns from the grave as The Crow on a mission to avenge his wife’s murder, so that his soul can finally rest. The original film is known for its breakthrough visual style as well as its unique production design and cinematography. The project is currently in development; start of production, targeted release dates and casting to be announced.

The film is being produced by Edward R. Pressman, Jeff Most and Relativity’s CEO Ryan Kavanaugh. Relativity’s Tooley (Immortals), The Weinstein Company’s Harvey and Bob Weinstein and Farah Films’ Dan Farah (Armored) will serve as executive producers.

[Vash]

"Gritty remake?" How much more gritty are you going to get than a rape to double-murder? And then one of the corpses gets up later and starts with the face-smashing?

[doug maverick]

I totally poached this off Doug's facebook feed. :p

**** YOU GENE!!!! lmao.. its all good..i was mobile most of yesterday so i didnt have the time to come post it here. im all for mcavoy. hope it goes through.

[GeneChing]

There's a vid if you follow the link.


Relativity’s ‘The Crow’ Reboot to Begin Production in January (Exclusive) (http://www.thewrap.com/relativity-the-crow-reboot-production-begin/)
After locking down Jason Momoa to star, rehabbed studio will roll cameras in early 2017
Umberto Gonzalez | September 6, 2016 @ 2:13 PM

Relativity’s “The Crow” reboot will begin production this January, multiple individuals have confirmed to TheWrap.

News broke last month that Jason Momoa (“Game of Thrones”) was in talks to star in the reboot, which Colin Hardy is directing.

Momoa recently posted a photo of himself with Hardy to Instagram with the hashtag “#sealthedeal.”

The actor will step into the role after he wraps production on Warners “Justice League,” in which he plays Aquaman. Audiences were first introduced to Momoa as the character in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Momoa will play Aquaman for a third time in a standalone film scheduled for 2018 and directed by James Wan.

“The Crow” reboot will be a new adaptation of James O’Barr’s cult classic comic book that was originally adapted for the 1994 film starring Brandon Lee and directed by Alex Proyas.

Like the original, the story follows Eric Draven, a murder victim who returns from the dead, seeking vengeance on those who murdered him and his fiancée with the help of a mystical bird.

However, rather than a recreation of Proyas’ film, “The Crow” reboot is said to be a more faithful adaptation of the comic book source material.

Relativity is emerging from bankruptcy and “The Crow” reboot is a priority project for the studio as it looks to rebuild its reputation in Hollywood.

[GeneChing]

Actor who accidently killed Bruce Lee's son passed away (http://www.indiaglitz.com/actor-michael-massee-who-accidently-killed-brendon-lee-passed-away-tamil-news-170116.html)
IndiaGlitz [Thursday, October 27, 2016]

https://igmedia.blob.core.windows.net/igmedia/tamil/news/micheal_masee_271016_m.jpg

Michael Massee (61) who recently starred as The Gentleman in ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ and ‘The Amazing Spiderman 2’ passed away on October 20th. The actor is famous for his roles in television series ‘24’ and ‘Interventions’ among others.

In 1993 Michael Massee starred as Funboy opposite Brendon Lee in the cult classic ‘The Crow’. During the filming Massee shot at Lee with a gun, which unfortunately was loaded and the twenty nine year old died on March 31st 1993. Brendon Lee like his illustrious father Bruce Lee had a tragic end.

Michael Masse never got over the Brendon Lee incident as revealed by him in many interviews as he was traumatized by the accident. He is survived by his wife Ellen and two children.

I remember hearing about Masse and how traumatized he was by the accident, but I'd lost track of him over the years.

[GeneChing]

Brandon Lee, Michael Massee and the ‘curse’ of The Crow (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/brandon-lee-michael-massee-and-the-curse-of-the-crow/)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/films/2016/10/27/112221153brandonlee-the-crow-large_trans++3480UNUU8UfSxDSaY1n7MG8nGi5dnbzU1Uvp1 fqu20E.jpg
Brandon Lee; 'It’s hard, while watching The Crow, to separate its dreadful circumstances from the morbidity of the actual story' CREDIT: REX
Tim Robey, film critic
27 OCTOBER 2016 • 1:47PM

In 1993 the son of Bruce Lee was fatally shot on the set of The Crow. His tragic death has been the subject of much rumour, heartbreak, and fascination ever since

Not much was stirring in Wilmington, North Carolina on Tuesday, 30 March 1993, except the after-hours shoot for The Crow – the 50th day of a production, shot wholly at night, that was about to be enshrouded in an altogether sadder aura of darkness. The sequence to be nailed in a loft apartment was pivotal: it was the murder of the film’s hero, Eric Draven, by a gang of hooligans whom he returns home to find assaulting his fiancée.

Emotionally intense though the scene was, its technical demands were fairly straightforward, especially given the elaborate set-pieces – one a warehouse shootout with hundreds of blanks raining down – that director Alex Proyas had already captured. One of the four thugs, chosen almost at random on the night, was to raise a Magnum .44 at Draven as he entered obliviously through the front door carrying the couple’s groceries. A single blank was to be fired, and a squib simultaneously let off in the shopping bag, to release blood over the actor playing Draven as he tumbled to the floor.

That actor was Brandon Lee, 28-year-old son of the legendary kung fu star Bruce Lee. As he fell backwards from the blast – not forwards, as they’d all planned – it took long moments before the others on set realised that something had gone hideously wrong. It took a lot longer – weeks of investigation, in fact – for anyone to work out why.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEfMQKaAhfs

After a well-received run of action movies including 1992's Rapid Fire, The Crow – everyone thought – would make him Lee a household nameCredit: Moviestore Collection/REX

The immediate impact of the shot was an internal abdominal bleed that reduced Lee’s heartbeat to a whimper. He lay there, going gray, on the apartment floor, while first aid was frantically administered. Rushed to the nearest hospital as soon as an ambulance could arrive, he underwent 12 hours of intermittent surgery and was pronounced dead at 1.03pm the next day.

The accident that had just occurred may be the unluckiest in the history of Hollywood production, for a bleak variety of logistical reasons that only came to light afterwards. It was also among the eeriest and most tragic in a whole set of other ways.

The Crow was meant to be Lee’s big break. He’d already built up a cult following among martial-arts fans, not just because of the legacy of his father, but for a modest if mountingly popular series of his own action flicks – the most recent of which, Rapid Fire (1992), had made a solid profit on a $10m budget.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/films/2016/10/27/bruce-and-brandon-xlarge-large_trans++igD1FP7dh-IbmJ01imzv7Aut5JdUjKdaDmsOgopaE2g.jpg
Brandon and Bruce Lee in 1970 CREDIT: REX

The Crow would be a different test of his physical capabilities and a much steeper one for his acting gifts. “I don't want to be remembered as ‘the son of Bruce Lee’,” he had once declared; Eric Draven was the role that stood the greatest chance of making that ambition a reality.

From James O’Barr’s 1989 comic book, inspired by the author’s despair when his own fiancée was killed by a drunk driver, this $15m independent production wanted to extract an intensely sorrowful atmosphere of Gothic melancholy. It was riding the wave of dark comic-book pictures started by Tim Burton’s Batman (1989), but going darker, grittier, and even more stylised on under half the budget, while trusting to the vision of an unproven director best-known for his commercials and music videos.

O’Barr’s influences were as much musical – the morbid soul-baring of Joy Division and The Cure – as literary, but there were hints of Edgar Allan Poe, H P Lovecraft and Bram Stoker in the main character’s anguished, vengeful scramble out of his own grave.

According to an in-depth account of the making of The Crow by the author Bridget Baiss, the shoot had been riven with complications, delays, and rumblings of discontent from cast and crew until this point – perhaps the inevitable upshot of committing to a freezing, nine-week night shoot that had already run more than a week behind schedule, leaving 8 or 9 days left to film on the day Lee was shot.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/films/2016/10/27/112222150brandonlee-the_-crow-large_trans++Rp36Ti1MFCYr8PMuS2fHb17hoDUspm84EYl8t HPMRlk.jpg
The Crow is a gloomy but brilliant epitaph to its very talented star CREDIT: REX

Just as production had begun, a carpenter suffered severe burns when his crane hit live power lines. The so-called “Storm of the Century” swept through the Southeastern US on March 13 and caused a panicked hiatus. Icicles formed, dangling from the rain machines on set, which were needed to sustain the film’s constant downpour. Everyone got ill.

The one thing keeping morale up was Lee himself, who uncomplainingly submitted to night after night of this intense workout, tramping barefoot and soaked to the skin through Wilmington’s alleyways, and clearly acting his socks off. Everyone on set was deeply impressed by his commitment to this role, and his evident drive to show audiences he was much, much more than a pair of biceps. Many came to love him, and mourned him desperately in the aftermath.
continued next post

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBxcW-9mw9k

The notion of The Crow being in some way a cursed production inevitably dies hard. Much of this comes from the lore surrounding Bruce Lee’s death from a brain haemorrhage 20 years earlier, caused by a freak reaction to an analgesic. In his biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993), released mere weeks after Brandon’s death, there’s even a creepy climactic scene in which young Brandon is stalked by the demon that’s just attacked his father.

After the news of Brandon’s death began to be reported, conspiracy theorists came out in force with wild tales of ninjas in the rafters, a sniper attack by Chinese Triad agents, and so on. The wider public didn’t even realise, perhaps until they subsequently saw the film, that Lee had been shot dead at the exact moment in the story when his character is; or what bizarre, three-way art-life parallels there are with O’Barr’s tragic backstory, the impending wedding of Eric and Shelly (Sofia Shinas) written into The Crow, and the fact that Lee was due to marry his own fiancée, Eliza, in Mexico on April 17th that year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/films/2016/10/27/rapid-fire-xlarge-large_trans++Rp36Ti1MFCYr8PMuS2fHb17hoDUspm84EYl8t HPMRlk.jpg
Brandon Lee in Rapid Fire

This is all stuff for fetishists of the macabre. The real solution to Brandon’s initially-baffling demise was a one-in-a-million instance of the wrong gun being unloaded on him, at the wrong time, and in the wrong anatomical place. The Magnum .44 which Funboy (Michael Massee, who has sadly died at the age of 61) points at Eric had been used two weeks before on a second-unit shoot. Close-ups had been taken of bullets being loaded into it – dummy bullets, with a quarter of the charge a full-load blank has.

Both dummies and blanks, though, in contravention of usual safety procedures, had hastily been fabricated by taking out the gunpowder from real bullets because of the time pressure crew members were under. Somehow, the lead tip added to one of these dummies had become lodged down the barrel during the second-unit shoot, because the quarter-charge wasn’t sufficient to propel it all the way out.

It’s unbelievably depressing to play the what-if game with what subsequently occurred, because any one of the following conditions would have saved a young man’s life. What if correct procedure had been followed and proper dummies used in that previous instance? What if a cleaning rod had been pushed down the barrel, either after the second-unit shoot, or at any point before the gun was brought back on set?

What if any of the prop handlers had so much as looked down the barrel? What if poor Massee had aimed the shot at the apartment wall, rather than Lee himself, since he wasn’t required to do so? Perhaps most fatefully, what if he’d pointed a mere centimetre to the left or right?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/films/2016/10/27/thecrowfunboy-large_trans++64i3L-OxpIM8BOpEukuCJpfSu3OJMN2EkuxJT5xweMk.jpg
Michael Massee as Funboy

The lead tip of the bullet, pushed out by the blank charge, scratched the bottom of the shopping bag before perforating Lee’s navel, and managed to puncture the stem of the aorta where it branches to provide blood supply to the legs. The pinpoint deadliness of Massee’s aim was a particularly hideous fluke. Understandably, though no one has ever blamed him for Lee’s death, Massee has struggled to recover from the incident ever since. “I don’t think you ever get over something like that,” he said in a 2005 interview.

According to Baiss, co-screenwriter John Shirley, who left the film before the final drafts, has rued the day he was let go from the project, because his own less violent script would have never had that gun going off when it did. Virtually to a man, everyone on the production spent a long time racking their consciences for ways to undo what couldn’t be undone.

After the tumult of confusion and shock following the accident, in which Lee’s near and dear – such as Eliza – were among the last to know what had happened, the producers and Proyas also faced the grim dilemma of whether they could or should bring the film to completion.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/films/2016/10/27/2748652-crow__1989_caliber_1st_printing__2-xlarge_trans++_WtVMNCiF6bjHOXgbX3FUL1AUZq4ICdRrN2S 2ABxUZM.jpg
James O'Barr's comic The Crow

With at least 8 days left to shoot, including key dialogue scenes for which stand-ins wouldn’t work, it was initially felt that abandoning The Crow was the most logical and tasteful directive. The insurance company underwriting production was willing to stump up for the entire cost thus far and pay off the bank loan, or to pay for the film’s completion, depending entirely on how its makers wanted to proceed.

After Lee’s funeral, a different mood prevailed – a desire, among the cast and crew who’d become closest to him, to get the film put together in his honour, since he’d dedicated so much stamina to starring in it. This required a combination of rewrites, reshoots and digital workarounds using techniques that counted as experimental for their day. Explanatory dialogue was shifted, cleverly, to the voiceover Eric’s teenage friend Sarah (Rochelle Davis) now has in the finished film.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/films/2016/10/27/the-crow-4-xlarge-large_trans++Rp36Ti1MFCYr8PMuS2fHb17hoDUspm84EYl8t HPMRlk.jpg
The filmmakers had to digitally 'resurrect' Brandon Lee to make the film work, but this was a precursor to the methods used when Paul Walker died during Fast and Furious CREDIT: REX

Obviously, the footage of Eric’s shooting, locked down in a vault and barely viewed by anyone to this day, would not be incorporated. For years a myth persisted that the scene of Lee’s death was actually visible in the finished film, which is nonsense. Stunt performers Jeff Cadiente and Chad Stahelski, cast for their resemblance to Lee, were used in a reconceived version of that crucial flashback, shot chiefly from Eric’s point of view to avoid facial close-ups.

The most laborious task was one obligatory shot of Eric staggering back to the apartment a year later, which was digitally lifted from an unused alleyway sequence and superimposed on an “empty” hallway shot. In effect, they had to resurrect Brandon Lee to make this whole sequence work. That, and the shots of Eric applying his trademark makeup in a smashed mirror, are precursors to the methods used after Oliver Reed died during Gladiator (2000) and Paul Walker during Fast and Furious 7 (2015).

Even now, coping with a dead star is no one’s idea of easy. In 1993 it was close to impossible, and pushed the film’s budget up considerably. To the huge relief of all involved, they pulled it off. Though Paramount declined to pick up what was now a markedly different proposition from the one they’d agreed to, Miramax bought the rights instead.

The Crow got unexpectedly strong reviews – Variety’s was an outright rave – and became a $115m, franchise-spawning worldwide hit, which can’t only be put down to ghoulish curiosity. It launched Proyas’s career as a mainstream filmmaker, and is remembered with a lot of respect, even an awed respect, by genre fans.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/films/2016/10/27/the-crow5-xlarge-large_trans++Rp36Ti1MFCYr8PMuS2fHb17hoDUspm84EYl8t HPMRlk.jpg
Brandon Lee in The Crow

Though it’s hard, while watching it, to separate the dreadful circumstances of Lee’s death from the morbidity of the actual story, this double image has given the film a curiously poetic afterlife. It exerts a gloomy if unintended fascination as an epitaph to its very talented star.

Though Brandon’s fiancée petitioned to have gun safety regulations tightened after his death, accidents through negligence on film sets are anything but a thing of the past, as proved by the recent case of Midnight Rider, a 2014 drama that halted production indefinitely when a camerawoman was killed by a freight train on the first day of shooting.

Talk of a Crow remake has bubbled up for years, first with Stephen (Blade) Norrington keen to direct in 2008, and Mark Wahlberg rumoured to star; successively, Bradley Cooper, Jack Huston and Luke Evans have all dropped out. The original film’s producer, Edward R Pressman, is still supposed to be pressing ahead, with Corin Hardy (The Hallow) now directing and Aquaman's Jason Momoa reportedly in talks to star. But does anyone want this role?

Currently the reboot is in the kind of purgatory its main character well understands. James O’Barr, for one, is certain it will rise again. When it does, you can guarantee the prop guns won’t be left lying around, and that everyone on set will say a quiet prayer before the cameras roll.

I've always held that the Crow was cursed (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?53111-The-Crow-remake&p=911240#post911240). They don't need to make a remake of the Crow. They need to make a documentary of the curse. That's a better story, so good you couldn't make it up. Happy Halloween.

[GeneChing]

There's something wonderfully recursive about a Crow remake.


NOVEMBER 17, 2016 11:23am PT by Tatiana Siegel
'The Crow' Remake Leaves Relativity and Heads to Group Led by Davis Films (Exclusive) (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/crow-remake-leaves-relativity-heads-group-led-by-davis-films-948322)

Samuel Hadida teams with Highland Film Group and Electric Shadow to acquire the rights to finance, produce and distribute the reboot of the cult classic franchise.

http://cdn2.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale_crop_768_433/2016/04/the_crow_1994_6-h_2016.jpg
Buena Vista/Photofest
'The Crow' (1994)

Samuel Hadida teams with Highland Film Group and Electric Shadow to acquire the rights to finance, produce and distribute the reboot of the cult classic franchise.

The Crow remake has flown the Relativity coop.

Samuel Hadida’s Davis Films, Highland Film Group and Electric Shadow have acquired the rights to finance, produce and distribute The Crow Reborn, a reboot of the cult classic franchise.

Edward R. Pressman, who produced the original 1994 film starring Brandon Lee, will produce Crow Reborn alongside Hadida. Highland Film Group, which will handle international sales, and Electric Shadow also are producing. Pressman and Relativity developed the film, which will be a more faithful adaptation of the original graphic novel written by James O’Barr. Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh will executive produce.

Jason Momoa was previously attached to star, and Corin Hardy was on board to direct. It is unclear if they will remain involved.

Principal photography is scheduled to begin in 2017.

The film was nearing production in 2015 when it was shelved due to Relativity Media's bankruptcy filing. After the studio emerged from Chapter 11 in April, The Crow was said to be among its highest priorities. But Relativity's own reboot sputtered, and Kavanaugh put the company up for sale last month. The Crow had been pegged as one of Relativity's most valuable development properties.

“I am thrilled to collaborate with this talented team and return the Crow franchise to its roots for a new generation of audiences to enjoy,” Pressman said Thursday in a statement.

No stranger to the genre, Hadida is behind both the Resident Evil and Silent Hill franchises. In January, Sony will release Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, starring Ruby Rose, Ali Larter and Milla Jovovich.

The Crow Reborn joins a Highland Film Group slate that also includes Vaughn Stein’s Terminal, starring Margot Robbie; Jon Avnet’s Three Christs of Ypsilanti, starring Richard Gere, Julianna Margulies, Peter Dinklage, Walton Goggins and Bradley Whitford; and Lin Oeding’s thriller Braven, starring Momoa.

London-based Electric Shadow's development projects include an adaptation of Stephen Fryʼs best-selling novel The Hippopotamus.

[Jimbo]

I've always held that the Crow was cursed (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?53111-The-Crow-remake&p=911240#post911240). They don't need to make a remake of the Crow. They need to make a documentary of the curse. That's a better story, so good you couldn't make it up. Happy Halloween.

Personally, I think that a documentary about The Crow would be FAR more interesting than a remake of it. I don't know if the movie was actually cursed or not, but the bizarre circumstances surrounding Brandon's death cannot be denied, and only a few months short of the 20th anniversary of BL's death. Almost like it was fated to happen.

IMO, The Crow sucked as a movie, big-time. I really can't understand how it achieved the cult status it has. Maybe it was the morbid curiosity surrounding it, because it sure wasn't a good movie (again, IMO).

[boxerbilly]

Personally, I think that a documentary about The Crow would be FAR more interesting than a remake of it. I don't know if the movie was actually cursed or not, but the bizarre circumstances surrounding Brandon's death cannot be denied, and only a few months short of the 20th anniversary of BL's death. Almost like it was fated to happen.

IMO, The Crow sucked as a movie, big-time. I really can't understand how it achieved the cult status it has. Maybe it was the morbid curiosity surrounding it, because it sure wasn't a good movie (again, IMO).


Yeah the Crow did suck. So did the other one. A documentary would be cool but aside from you and me and maybe 3 other older guys well, I guess Netflix for the stoners might work too.....

[GeneChing]

There's a vid, but it's basically covered in this article.


SEPTEMBER 01, 2017 11:04am PT by Borys Kit
'The Crow' Reboot Lands at Sony (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/crow-reboot-lands-at-sony-1034661)

The project previously spent almost a decade at Relativity with various directors and actors coming and going.

The Crow has a new nest.

The long-in-the-works remake of the cult supernatural revenge action movie that starred Brandon Lee, titled The Crow Reborn, has landed at Sony Pictures, which has signed to distribute the feature project.

The project spent almost a decade at Relativity with various directors and actors coming and going. When the company went under, the project went into limbo.

Jason Momoa and Corin Hardy were last on board as star and director, and while they are not formally signed on to the Sony version, insiders say the plan does includes them coming on in the near term.

The original movie was directed by Alex Proyas and featured Lee as a man brought back from the dead to avenge his own death, as well as his girlfriend’s. The movie became a cult hit not just due to style and resonating story but partially due to Lee’s accidental death during production.

Sources say the reboot will be a more faithful adaptation of the indie comic created by James O’Barr that was first published in 1989.

Samuel Hadida’s Davis Films, Highland Film Group and Electric Shadow previously acquired the rights to finance, produce and distribute the film.

Kevin Misher will also be producing for Misher Films.

Edward R. Pressman, who produced the 1994 original and spent years developing it while it was at Relativity, will produce alongside Hadida. Highland Film Group and Electric Shadow are also producing. Dan Farah (Ready Player One) will exec produce.

Highland Film Group will also handle international sales.

[GeneChing]

So tempted to split this into Crow Reborn vs Crow Remake threads


MARCH 02, 2018 11:53am PT by Aaron Couch
Jason Momoa's 'The Crow' Sets 2019 Release Date (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/crow-release-date-set-2019-1090317)

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale_crop_768_433/2016/08/jason_momoa_getty_h_2016.jpg
Karwai Tang/WireImage

The remake will open Oct. 11, 2019.

The Crow is flying into 2019.

The remake of the Brandon Lee film will open Oct. 11, 2019, Sony announced Friday.

Jason Momoa is expected to star. Corin Hardy, who has the horror film The Nun out later this year, will helm the project, a remake of the 1994 supernatural revenge thriller. Alex Proyas directed the original film, in which Lee starred as a man brought back from the dead in order to avenge the death of his girlfriend, as well as his own. The film became a cult hit, in part because Lee was killed in a tragic on-set accident during production.

The new The Crow is said to be a faithful adaptation of James O’Barr's indie comic, first published in 1989.

Sony also set dates for two other films. A Dog's Way Home, an adaptation of A Dog's Purpose author W. Bruce Cameron's best-selling book, opens Jan. 11, 2019.

Meanwhile, Miss Bala opens Jan. 25, 2019. The film is a remake of a 2011 Mexican drama about a woman who enters a beauty contest but is then swept up in a deadly crime ring. Catherine Hardwicke is directing.

[GeneChing]

Wise move, Momoa. Dodge that curse.

I just saw the Crow again earlier this week. It was playing on El Rey (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68210-El-Rey-Network-and-Shaw-Brothers) (I RIDE WITH EL REY (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70140-Man-at-Arms-Art-of-War-New-Original-Series-from-EL-REY-Network)). At first, it felt dated, but then by the end, Brandon's performance shined through. It really was an amazing role for him, so tragic in retrospect.


MAY 31, 2018 3:31pm PT by Richard Newby
Why 'The Crow' Should Not Fly Again (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/crow-should-be-left-alone-jason-momoa-exit-1116250)

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale_crop_768_433/2018/05/the_crow_1994_5_copy_-_h_2018.jpg
Photofest
Brandon Lee in 'The Crow' (1994)

A new adaptation seems to go against the very themes inherent to the story, and Jason Momoa's departure should be the final nail in the coffin.
Sony’s planned reboot of The Crow has once again gotten its wings clipped.

Star Jason Momoa on Thursday morning confirmed he and director Corin Hardy were leaving the project. Financial issues are said to be the reason behind the film’s failure to launch, but the inability to get this project on the right track has now been a decade-long saga.

The Crow, following the plot of the original comic series by James O’Barr, and the 1994 film of the same name, would tell the story of Eric Draven, a man who is killed alongside his fiancee by a vicious gang led by the sociopathic Top Dollar. Eric is resurrected by a supernatural crow who gives him abilities to stalk down the killers and claim vengeance. While there’s a beauty in the simplicity of its narrative, contrasted by the complexity of grief through which O’Barr was inspired — a result of his own personal tragedy — The Crow has been one of the most challenging films for Hollywood to remake. From script issues, budgetary concerns, the inability to find a director or star who stays on long enough for production to start, the project has encountered a development hell unlike any other comic book film based on a single narrative. It seems The Crow is cursed to remain dormant. Perhaps these latest exits are further signs that the notion of remaking the film should finally be given up.

Plans to remake Alex Proyas’ 1994 film were first announced in 2008 with Stephen Norrington (Blade) ready to sit in the director’s chair. Norrington ultimately left the project and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) joined as helmer in 2011, with Bradley Cooper set in the lead. Cooper eventually left, and Mark Wahlberg was said to be his replacement until Fresnadillo dropped out as well. In 2012, Francisco Javier Gutierrez (Rings) signed on to direct, with Tom Hiddleston and Alexander Skarsgard rumored to be circling the project. Luke Evans was officially cast in 2013 and James O’Barr was hired on as creative consultant. This time, it seemed, The Crow would finally fly. Yet, before anyone could get the fog machines set, Gutierrez left the project. Corin Hardy was hired in 2014 and Jack Huston was cast in the lead, but Relativity Media’s bankruptcy stalled the film. In 2016, Jason Momoa replaced Huston and the film was retitled The Crow Reborn. But that rebirth was not to be.

In an Instagram post, Momoa lamented the fact that he wouldn’t be able to take on his dream role eight years in the making. While he made it clear that he had no ill feelings towards his experience working with Hardy and Sony Pictures, he did apologize to creator O’Barr for letting him down. Momoa suggested it may take another eight years for the project to come to fruition.

It’s easy to sympathize with the creatives involved, given the time and effort they spent in trying to get this project off the ground. But The Crow shouldn’t fly again, regardless of the best of intentions from everyone involved. Sure, films are rebooted and remade all the time, but The Crow feels different — sacred in its perfect alignment of all the right elements, and the one thing that went very wrong.

The 1994 film, directed by Proyas, holds up incredibly well as both an adaptation and a film that created its own visual language. There’s a legacy that the movie has, which has earned it a special place among fans. Its cult reputation not only stems from the way in which the pic deals with grief, but also as a result of the tragic death of star Brandon Lee. Lee, who was accidently shot and killed on the set of the film in 1993, played the central role of Draven with a melancholic vigor that hit home with audiences. As the actor’s final role, many have seen the tragic parallels between the film and Lee’s short life. Lee, who was set to be married a week after The Crow finished filming, has become a figure of gothic romance within the narrative of Hollywood tragedy. But looking beyond the sensationalizing of his death and the comparisons drawn between Lee and the additionally short life of his father, Bruce Lee, there remains the simple fact that he is absolutely brilliant in his portrayal of Draven. It’s a performance that is entirely captivating in a way that sticks with viewers. There’s a physicality and vocal aura that Lee imbued the character with that seems to transcend film and take on an almost supernatural quality. Accentuated by the pic’s moody goth-rock soundtrack and Proyas’ darkly dripping aesthetics, Lee delivered a performance that surely would have made him one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

Death, of course, rarely halts the Hollywood machine, and film roles are often like Shakespeare characters, meant to be brought to life by different people through time. This is especially true when it comes to comic book characters. The roles of Superman and The Joker, brought to their most iconic heights by Christopher Reeve and Heath Ledger, respectively, weren’t shelved and made uninhabitable as a result of tragedy. But the Crow seems different. This may be because Lee died on set during filming, or it may be because the movie deals so heavily with death and the inability and unwillingness to let go of people. Whichever the case, it feels like Eric Draven’s story has been told for good, and Hollywood studios have the opportunity to be curators of a once-in-a-lifetime performance.

The franchise notably didn’t end with Proyas’ film. The Crow spawned three sequels: The Crow: City of Angels (1996), The Crow Salvation (2000) and The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005), which saw a steady decline in interest and quality. What these films did have working for them was that they continued the story of the Crow through characters other than Draven who were looking for vengeance. Thus, the Crow franchise became an anthology, an angle which comic book miniseries subsequently took as well. Draven was only portrayed again in the short-lived Canadian TV series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven (1998). In terms of film, Eric Draven has only ever been Brandon Lee.

Proyas has been publicly outspoken about his feelings toward the Crow remake. In December, the filmmaker wrote in a Facebook post that he opposed the idea of a remake, calling it wrong. “Hollywood should just let it remain a testament to [Brandon’s] immense talent and ultimate sacrifice," he wrote. Proyas ended his statement with a plea to “please let this remain Brandon’s film.” While the graphic novel’s creator O’Barr has seemingly been on board with his work being re-adapted, it’s clear from Proyas’ statement and the fans of the film that The Crow has grown beyond the work it originally was intended to be, to the point where a new adaptation seems to go against the very themes inherent to the story. There are other versions of The Crow, centered around different characters and set in different time periods, that could be told if Sony remains insistent on trying to make the movie happen, but the departure of Hardy and Momoa might be the final nail in a coffin that should remain closed. Lee gave everything he had to the role of Eric Draven and the dream of Hollywood stardom. It seems only right that Hollywood celebrate and mourn that dedication by letting the remake idea finally rest so that the actor’s legacy lives on through the recognition that what he did cannot be re-created.

[GeneChing]

Bill Skarsgard to Star in ‘The Crow’ Reboot, Rupert Sanders Directing (Exclusive) (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/the-crow-reboot-bill-skarsgard-1235123704/)
After years of stop and go, the new iteration of the 1994 supernatural actioner is on the runway, and production is slated to begin in June.
BY BORYS KIT

APRIL 1, 2022 3:12PM
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Bill-Skarsgard-The-Crow-Rupert-Sander-Getty-H-Split-2022.jpg?w=681&h=383&crop=1
Bill Skarsgard, 'The Crow,' Rupert Sanders GEORGE PIMENTEL/GETTY; ROBERT ZUCKERMAN / DIMENSION FILMS / COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION; AMIE MCCARTHY/GETTY

After years of false starts and many rings of development hell, The Crow appears ready to fly again.

Bill Skarsgard, who played Pennywise the Clown in the It horror movies, will star in the reboot of the supernatural revenge thriller that will be directed by Rupert Sanders, best known for helming Snow White and the Huntsman and Ghost in the Shell.

Longtime Crow steward Edward R. Pressman and Malcolm Gray, a co-producer on the 2019 Chadwick Boseman thriller 21 Bridges, are producing.

Crow was an indie comic written and drawn by James O’Barr in the late 1980s that told the dark tale of a man and his fiancee who are assaulted and killed by a gang after the couple’s car breaks down. The man is resurrected by a crow and exacts vengeance on those who took his life and the life of his love.

Skarsgard will play Eric Draven, the man on the revenge mission. Zach Baylin, who is coming off an Oscar nomination for penning King Richard, wrote the script.

The project is well into preproduction ahead of a June start date, with shooting to take place in Prague and Munich. The budget is in the $50 million range, and it does appear like the film will actually take flight.

Fans of The Crow, however, have plenty of reasons to be skeptical that this iteration won’t get derailed at the last minute, given the franchise’s infamous history. The first movie, released in 1994, was a critical and box office hit and gained a fervent cult following after the on-set death of star Brandon Lee.

A sequel, titled The Crow: City of Angels, starred Vincent Perez. It was released in 1996 and was followed by two more films, The Crow: Salvation (2000) and The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005), with Eric Mabius and Edward Furlong as the respective leads. There was even a late-1990s TV series that starred Mark Dacascos. But since Wicked Prayer’s 2005 opening, the franchise has seen plenty of lift and drag.

Director Stephen Norrington (Blade) was involved with one reboot, while F. Javier Gutiérrez (Before the Fall) and actor Luke Evans worked on another. Corin Hardy (The Nun) took on the task of a reboot in 2017 and attached Jason Momoa to star, but both men left in 2018 after a clash over financial issues between producers and the distributor, clipping the project’s wings once again.

Skarsgard, who helped the It movies scare up over $1.1 billion at the worldwide box office, will be seen in the upcoming John Wick: Chapter 4 and is currently filming the action-fantasy Boy Kills World. Ironically, he voiced a character named Kro in Marvel’s 2021 movie Eternals.

Sanders developed a name as a commercial director adept at visual wizardry before making his feature debut with 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman, a big-budget fantasy starring Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth. His 2017 outing, the adaptation of manga Ghost in the Shell, starred Scarlett Johansson.

Skarsgard is repped by WME, Magnolia Entertainment and Hirsch Wallerstein. Sanders is repped by CAA, Grandview and Independent Talent Group.

I don't think this is an April Fool's prank.

[GeneChing]

Not an April Fool's prank.


FKA Twigs Joins Bill Skarsgard in ‘The Crow’ Reboot (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/fka-twigs-bill-skarsgard-crow-reboot-1235124947/)
The supernatural revenge thriller is being directed by Rupert Sanders.
BY BORYS KIT

APRIL 4, 2022 8:55AM
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/GettyImages-1357557005-H-2022.jpg?w=681&h=383&crop=1
FKA Twigs SAMIR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE


FKA Twigs, the British singer and dancer who is making inroads into acting, is co-starring in the reboot and re-imagining of The Crow, the supernatural revenge thriller being directed by Rupert Sanders.

Bill Skarsgård, who played Pennywise the Clown in the It horror movies, is toplining the project, which has seen numerous iterations and close calls come and go amid years of development.

Crow was an indie comic written and drawn by James O’Barr in the late 1980s that told the dark tale of a man and his fiancee who are assaulted and killed by a gang after the couple’s car breaks down. The man is resurrected by a crow and exacts vengeance on those who took his life and the life of his love.

Twigs is playing the girlfriend/fiancée. The role was not significant in the original movie but sources say that in this re-imagining, the part has been re-conceived into a co-lead. It is unclear if the character never quite dies, perhaps returns in some supernatural form, or may even be a representation of the crow itself.

Crow is due to begin shooting in June with production to take place in Prague and Munich.

Producing are Victor Hadida, Molly Hassell, John Jencks and Edward R. Pressman. Dan Farah is an exec producer on the project.

Twigs earlier this year released a mixtape album titled Caprisongs and had a song on The King’s Man soundtrack.

I'm thinking FKA Twigs will need her own indie thread here soon. She's popped up several times here. I think this was the first (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?36569-Kung-Fu-Music&p=1316759#post1316759).

[GeneChing]

‘Ballerina’ Dances Into Summer 2025 As ‘The Crow’ Swoops Into John Wick Spinoff’s June 2024 Date

By Anthony D'Alessandro
Editorial Director/Box Office Editor
@AwardsTony

February 21, 2024 4:00pm

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Ana-De-Armas-The-Crow.jpg?w=681&h=383&crop=1
Ana De Armas, "The Crow"
Michael Buckner for Deadline/Dimension Films/Everett Collection

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate‘s John Wick spinoff Ballerina starring Ana de Armas will be delayed a year from June 7, 2024 to June 6, 2025. The move comes as John Wick architect Chad Stahelski has inked a new deal with Lionsgate to oversee the franchise. He’s working with Ballerina director Len Wiseman on additional action sequences for the movie, to amp it up even more than it is.

Advance tracking is already hot on Ballerina, Lionsgate just wants to make the feature, produced by Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee’s Thunder Road even better. Currently, the Ballerina stands alone on her new summer 2025 date.
Now, there’s nothing for exhibition to fret, for the Rupert Sanders’ redux of The Crow will be taking over Ballerina‘s summer date of June 7 this year. Bill Skarsgård takes on the iconic role of The Crow in this modern reimagining of the original graphic novel by James O’Barr. Soulmates Eric Draven (Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right. Danny Huston, Laura Birn, Sami Bouajila, and Jordan Bolger also star. Pic was penned by Zach Baylin and Will Schneider, based on the graphic novel. The Crow is produced by Victor Hadida, Molly Hassell, John Jencks, Samuel Hadida, and Edward R. Pressman.
Also bowing on June 7 is New Line’s horror movie, The Watchers, from Ishana Night Shyamalan.
In more good news for January 2025, Lionsgate is adding an untitled Guy Ritchie directed movie to Jan. 17 — MLK weekend. However, Amazon MGM Studios already has an untitled Jason Statham film there. Who will blink? The latest Ritchie movie reteams him with stars Henry Cavill and Eiza González following their upcoming Lionsgate film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, (which is coming out on April 19 this year). Also dated for MLK weekend 2025 is Sony’s Paddington in Peru. If all movies stay in January, that brings the current count for wide entries up to six titles, which is one more than January 2024’s five wide releases.

Ballerina (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71539-Ballerina)
The-Crow-Remake (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70713-The-Crow-Remake)

[GeneChing]

The Darkest Superhero Movie of the ‘90s is Finally Coming to 4K (https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/the-crow-4k-uhd-release#:~:text=Now%2C%20after%2030%20years%2C%20t hat,The%20Crow%20on%20May%207th.)
Buildings burn, people die, but good movies are forever.
BY DAIS JOHNSTON
FEB. 21, 2024

https://imgix.bustle.com/uploads/image/2024/2/20/1ab2618b-431b-4e61-b6b1-5e2dc425aa4d-the-crow-brandon-lee.jpg?w=920&h=560&fit=crop&crop=faces&auto=format%2Ccompress
Miramax Films
A good cult classic can capture a particular feeling of simultaneous ridiculousness and joy. But with superhero movies dominating the zeitgeist, it’s increasingly rare that one manages to attain cult status, the internet’s ironic love for Morbius notwithstanding. In 1994, however, one innovative cult hit managed to define a superhero subgenre — and the tragically shortened career of its star.

Now, after 30 years, that movie is getting a huge upgrade that will bring it to a whole new audience, all just in time for a new version to hit theaters. According to Blu-Ray.com, Paramount Pictures will release a 4K UHD version of The Crow on May 7th. The release will also include the option of a limited-edition steelbook.

The Crow is the story of Eric Draven (Brandon Lee), a rock musician who’s murdered alongside his fiancée, but rises from the dead with a clear mission: get revenge. Based on James O’Barr’s comic book series, it became a sleeper hit among the Hot Topic crowd that deserves its place among other ‘90s comic book movies like Blade and Batman and Robin.

https://imgix.bustle.com/uploads/image/2024/2/20/9dcff58c-45c5-4d70-b1af-fe724110957a-the-crow-backdrop-1920.jpg?w=825&h=464&fit=crop&crop=faces&auto=format%2Ccompress
The Crow brought a dark edge to the superhero genre years before The Dark Knight.MIRAMAX
One of the first “gritty” superhero movies that set the stage for projects like Nolan’s Batman trilogy, The Crow balances a pitch-black tone with plenty of jokes to diffuse the tension. Unfortunately, the movie is perhaps best known for the prop gun accident that mortally wounded star Brandon Lee, son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee.

The film was completed through careful reshoots and the use of body doubles, but the loss of Lee looms large over it. The representation of what Lee’s career could have been is part of why The Crow has such a lasting legacy, and a new 4K edition could do Lee’s legacy justice while also letting the movie stand on its own reputation. Dariusz Wolski, the movie’s cinematographer, said on Instagram that he’d overseen the new edition and that it was a “truly emotional” experience.

With a remake of The Crow starring Bill Skarsgård and musician FKA Twigs coming later this year, now’s the perfect time to either revisit this Goth classic, or experience an overlooked moment in superhero history for the first time. Then, if you’re really hardcore, you can watch the new movie in full cosplay.

The Crow 4K UHD edition will be available on May 7, 2024.
So dark. I love the film but the death of Brandon makes it super dark.

[Kevin73]

So dark. I love the film but the death of Brandon makes it super dark.

When The Crow came out on VHS, it also included Brandon Lee's last interview. Watch it and it will really give you some chills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzKDxQUVE5U

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djSKp_pwmOA

[GeneChing]

Original ‘The Crow’ Director Disavows Reboot Over Concern for Brandon Lee’s Legacy (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/original-the-crow-director-disavows-reboot-1235855222/#:~:text=Alex%20Proyas%20wrote%20of%20his,That%27s %20how%20it%20should%20remain.%22)
Alex Proyas wrote of his late leading man and the 1994 film, "It is his legacy. That's how it should remain."
BY AARON COUCH
MARCH 18, 2024 3:48PM
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/The-Crow-Brandon-Lee-Still-Everett-MSDCROW_EC007-H-2024.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1&resize=1000%2C563
THE CROW, Brandon Lee, 1994 MIRAMAX/COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION

Over the years, filmmaker Alex Proyas has maintained that his 1994 feature The Crow should not get a reboot out of respect for Brandon Lee, his star who died in an on-set accident. Now, after years of development, a The Crow reboot is indeed ready for release, and Proyas is once again expressing his concerns.

“I really don’t get any joy from seeing negativity about any fellow filmmakers work. And I’m certain the cast and crew really had all good intentions, as we all do on any film. So it pains me to say any more on this topic, but I think the fan’s response speaks volumes,” Proyas wrote on Facebook Monday, along with a link to an article noting that The Crow reboot’s trailer received numerous dislikes on YouTube. “THE CROW is not just a movie. Brandon Lee died making it, and it was finished as a testament to his lost brilliance and tragic loss. It is his legacy. That’s how it should remain.”

Proyas previously expounded at greater length on the topic in 2017, back when star Jason Momoa was poised to star in the reboot. “I finished the film for Brandon – struggling through grief, along with the hugely supportive cast & crew who all loved Brandon, to complete it in his absence,” Proyas wrote. “We were imbued with the strength of Brandon’s spirit and his inspiration. Not only Brandon’s wonderful work as an actor and a film-maker, but as a man, whose humanity had touched us.”

Lee, the son of Bruce Lee, was killed by a prop gun on set in 1993 at the age of 28. Rupert Sanders, the director of the new The Crow, previously noted he hoped his film could serve as a tribute to Lee.

“Brandon was an original voice and I think he will always be synonymous with The Crow and I hope he’s proud of what we’ve done and how we’ve brought the story back again. His soul is very much alive in this film. There’s a real fragility and beauty to his version of the Crow, and I think Bill feels like he is a successor to that,” Sanders told Vanity Fair in an article published last month.

Lionsgate is behind The Crow, which is due out June 7. The Crow is based on James O’Barr’s comics, which debuted in 1989 and tells the story of a man who is murdered, alongside his fiancee, only to be resurrected to seek vengence. Multiple sequels followed the 1994 film, including The Crow: City of Angels (1996), The Crow: Salvation (2000) and The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005).
I feel what Proyas is saying but it was a comic before Brandon. Plus there were all the sequels.