The Crow starring Brandon Lee, the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, is a cult classic that is dear to our hearts following the real catastrophe behind the movie's biggest star. Now we will have a reboot of the film newly directed by Rupert Sanders, and written by Zach Baylin. Also starring Bill Skarsgård, who will play the main role of Eric Draven, and FKA Twigs as Shelley Webster, his fiance.
Now let's keep it real, it was almost Kristen Stewart LOL.
ANYWAY—
I mean, for the ones that don't know, the original film is a dark tale of love, loss, and revenge that stems from the true stories of James O' Barr and how he lost his beloved in a car crash. He then wrote the famous graphic novel called The Crow which was released in 1989.
The movie came out in 1994 and was an instant cult classic. Eric Draven and his fiance Shelly are brutally murdered on the night of their Halloween wedding. One year later, Draven is resurrected by a crow and returns to seek revenge on those who killed him and his love. Along the way, Draven gathers allies to help him take down the criminals who destroyed his life. In the end, Draven gets his vengeance and finds peace with his death.
Tragically, Brandon Lee died during filming when he was accidentally shot with a prop gun that had live ammunition in it.
Despite this cataclysm, the movie was still released and went on to become one of the most beloved masterpieces for us devotees. It's a story that's resonated with many people on a spiritual level, myself included.
So deep down, I could understand why someone would want to put their dirty little hands on it, but I'm judging them every step of the way. Plus. with so many failures getting this into production, that should have been a true sign to know that we can't and shouldn't touch nice things.
14 years since 2008?? LMAO. Like, come on. Even the blunt casting of Eric Draven prior was a rollercoaster to remember while different writers and producers were badging into those double doors.
Mark Wahlberg. GONE.
Bradley Cooper. GONE.
Luke Evans. GONE.
Tom Hiddleston. GONE.
Alexander Skarsgård. GONE.
Channing Tatum. GONE.
Jack Huston. GONE.
Jason Momoa. GONE.
So why are they remaking it? According to reports, the studio wanted to capitalize on the success of other recent reboots like IT and A Star Is Born. They also felt that they could make a more authentic adaptation of James O'Barr's graphic novel with today's technology.
Meanwhile, I can appreciate their logic I suppose but I still think this is a terrible idea.
Speaking of disappointments, in 2015, James O' Barr got asked a question at the Twin Tiers Comic Con in Elmira, New York, if he'd be down to reboot The Crow as an anime based on the graphic novels:
"Funimation wanted to do a Crow series and it was right after they did Afro Samurai so a bunch of things Japanese executives flew over to meet with me and talk with me about it. I thought it was a phenomenal idea I thought that was you know, it's just like, with anime, just like the violence is 100% so, over the top man, I thought it would be perfect. But unfortunately, the deal I have with Hollywood is that I own the character and the publication rights and they own the film and TV rights. So what Hollywood did was like, 'sure he can make it, give us $6 million. You can license, you know' and we were like, 'well, that's the whole budget right there.' So that was a big disappointment for me. Because I really wanted to see that."
LIKE...
I really had to dust myself off from that one because I lost count of how many times I've tried to suggest this vs an ACTUAL reboot with real people. LMAO.
I own James O' Barr's graphic novels and the art is fucking fantastic and so dark. The amount of potential is insane, however, HOLLYWOOD. Enough said.
So now we're over here gunning it forward from 2015 to the year 2020 where James O' Barr finally came out saying he didn't agree with a reboot either aside from the anime idea. In an interview with the website Supernova, he said:
“That reboot thing has been going on for almost 12 years now with different studios trying to make it. To me, it’s not necessary,” he says. “The Crow still holds up remarkably well. For a 10 million dollar film, it looks astonishing… it seems kind of pointless if you’re just going to be repetitious.”
I couldn't agree more. The Crow is an excellent movie as it is. There is no need to tamper with perfection.
Now, 27 years later, we are getting a fucking reboot of The Crow starring Bill Skarsgård. Nothing against Bill because he's a great actor, sure. However, this news was met with a lot of backlash from fans of the original movie, and for good reason. The Crow is so loved and respected because it is a beautiful catastrophe that was born out of real-life tragedy. It simply cannot be replicated.
On top of that, there was a notice of filming at the Repre Cultural Center where pink jumpsuits were spotted from the extras including FKA Twigs, in some sort of, jail scene. Something that's already not in the original, but whatever right?
They've been filming The Crow under the working title Yellow Flower, and the entire thing recently just wrapped up in Prague.
Even the odd confusion of the project was turning into a TV series with six episodes after the documentation was filed to film in the city. According to The Prague Reporter, there were no specific details on what the extras were signed up for by the local casting agents. However, they constantly had to be told that it was not for porn, even though some were willing to get nude.
Moving on to Lee's co-star Jon Polito, he said from behind the scenes, the conditions were horrible on set of the original film.
"and The Crow was a very bad-luck film from the very first moment."
On the set of The Crow, a carpenter was severely burned when a crane hit power lines, a disgruntled crew member drove their car into the back of the studio lot, and there was an infamous ‘storm of the century that swept through North Carolina which destroyed exterior sets. Brandon Lee spent six days a week wearing very little and acting in the pouring rain for his role as Eric Draven. A prop guy went to buy items for the production and also purchased a set of live bullets which he took back to the set. As live rounds should never be kept on set, they were removed and stored in the trunk of the film's prop master's car.
In an effort to save time, the prop guys took the live bullets from the car and modified them into blanks, also creating dummy rounds (which didn’t have gunpowder but kept the lead tip) to be used for close-ups. Unbeknown to anyone on set, when the dummy round was loaded into the gun for that shot, the lead tip got lodged in the barrel.
On March 30th, 1993, the gun used on set for The Crow was the same gun that would be used to shoot Brandon Lee's character. Everything went as planned and Lee fell to the ground after being shot. It wasn't until after Proyas called cut that anyone realized Lee wasn’t moving and he had been hit by a bullet wound. The man holding the gun was his co-star Michael Massee, aka Funboy, who died at the age of 64.
Two months following Lee’s death, Pressman secured a further $8 million to re-write the script and finish the production of The Crow using stuntmen Chad Stahelski and Jeff Cadiente with permission from his family.
Meanwhile, Brandon Lee was engaged to Eliza Hutton, and they were planning on getting married just 10 days after filming. Sadly he passed in the hospital two days later.
ON THAT NOTE
As there's no release date for this movie and it is an unnecessary money grab for the wrong reasons, I'm completely against the thought of rebooting The Crow.
BYE.