The reboot of The Crow is taken from the shadows and given the chance to shine once more. The film is based upon a comic book by James O’Barr. It is about a rock guitarist named Eric Draven, who is witness to his fiancée’s murder by thugs, then killed right, after by viciously thrown out of his apartment window. A year later on Devil’s Day, a day when thugs come out and rule the streets, Eric Draven rises from the dead to avenge his own, and his fiancée’s deaths.

The last four sequels to The Crow have all been duds compared to the original. The first installment starred the late Brendon Lee, Bruce Lee’s son, who died on The Crow’s set by a bullet wound in the abdomen by a dummy bullet. The bullet, lodged in the barrel of the gun by previous usage, went undetected. When shot, the bullet unlodged and entered Brandon Lee’s stomach and hit his spinal cord. Even with his tragic death, the movie was hailed for its action sequences as well as for its gritty, gothic production design.

With the reboot, the creators were going to take a different approach toward the design. Stephen Norrington was supposed to be the director, but due to creative differences, was replaced by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later). Fresnadillo is to complete his most recent work Intruders soon but has many other upcoming projects like House of Horror and The Monkey’s Paw. In order for him to work on The Crow, he will have to drop one of his projects.

The real question that floated around for some time is what will happen to the script? Nick Cave wrote the original script for Norrington, but with the movie changing hands to Fresnadillo, the original was entirely rewritten by Alex Tse, the writer for Watchmen. Tse does not have a lot experience as Watchmen is his only well known project.

As for the cast, the main question is who will play the main character and rumor has it that Mark Walberg turned down an offer for the lead. Recently, it seems like Bradley Cooper will get the role.

The Crow would have been shooting already if it were not for the lawsuits that followed the story around. Relatively Studios wanted to distribute the movie to other distribution branches rather than use the Weinstien Company. This was due to Weinstein botching the release of Relativity’s movie Nine which bombed at the box office. Weinstein claimed that this was a breach of contract. However, the courts sided with Relitivity and now Weinstein will try to defend themselves in an arbitration as Relitivity tries to get the contract nullified, allowing Relitivity to distribute the movie through another company.

Even with all the changes and lawsuits, The Crow will be interesting to see. Some were upset about the reboot. They believe that Hollywood should just let the cult classic stay as it is.  But others felt there was no harm in making one more.  Hollywood already made four inauspicious sequels if they want to make a lousy fifth one then that is fine. Who knows, it might be better than the first. It is still in development, but it is one project that is worth keeping eyes on to see how the production will play out.

Due to lawsuits, Norrington leaving and having to draft a new script, the movie in the development stage for way too long. It has been drastically changed, and there have been so many disputes over the movie.  The real question is not who will star in it or who will distribute it. The real question is will The Crow reboot ever take flight?

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About the author

Peter Yannantuono