'The Crow' Reboot's Painstakingly Long, Messy Journey to the Silver Screen

'The Crow' Reboot's Painstakingly Long, Messy Journey to the Silver Screen

John Nick John Nick
Aug 25, 2024 - 21:52
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'The Crow' Reboot's Painstakingly Long, Messy Journey to the Silver Screen

The long-gestating reimagining of The Crow is finally slated to debut this August, with Bill Skarsgård slipping on Eric's black leather coat. Some would consider the timing fortunate, especially with the original Crow celebrating its 30th anniversary. Others feel that the entire project is a mistake, citing that the first official trailer for The Crow felt at odds with the original's tone. No matter what side you might fall on, it's a miracle that there's a new version of The Crow. It took roughly 16 years to assemble a cast and crew for the film, from the reimagining's announcement in 2008 to the present day. Many actors and directors boarded and departed The Crow over the years, combined with some seismic shifts in studio ownership. That's a recipe for a long, rocky road to the silver screen.

The 'Crow' Reimagining Was Almost Helmed by the Directors of 'Blade' and 'Damsel'

Blade, played by Wesley Snipes, smiles and holds up a double-sided throwing weapon
Images via New Line Cinema

The first director to approach The Crow was Stephen Norrington. Norrington's no stranger to comic book adaptations: he directed the first Blade movie, which is regarded as one of the comic book movies that ignited a comeback for the superhero movie. He also helmed League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which is notorious for serving as the end of Sean Connery's acting career. Norrington also had a specific vision for the film, which he told Variety about when he was first tapped to direct: "Whereas Alex Proyas' original was gloriously gothic and stylized, the new movie will be realistic, hard-edged and mysterious, almost documentary-style." Shortly afterward, Mark Wahlberg was announced to be in the running to play Draven. It wouldn't be the first time that Wahlberg has been linked to a reboot of a popular franchise; he was also attached to a version of The Six Million Dollar Man that's still languishing in the dreaded "development hell."

Norrington eventually departed The Crow, which led Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to board in 2011. Bradley Cooper was now in the running to play Draven but eventually had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict. In the meantime, another group of actors — James McAvoy, Channing Tatum and Ryan Gosling — were all rumored for the lead role. But none of them ever slipped on that leather trench coat due to Relativity being sued by Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein had launched a lawsuit against Relativity Mediadue to the distribution rights over The Crow . According to Weinstein's lawyer Bert Fields, Relativity head Ryan Kavanaugh refused to honor the deal struck with Weinstein. “Mr. Kavanaugh was not going to honor that contract. Apparently, he’s going to sell these rights to others. He made a bunch of threats...Some people may submit to that kind of arrogant conduct, but we’re not going to do it," Fields said when the lawsuit was first announced.

'The Crow' Reboot Switched Studios and Even Involved the Comic's Creator

Relativity and Weinstein eventually settled out of court, but Fresnadillo ended up departing The Crow. F. Javier Gutierrez boarded the production soon after, and even scored a new lead actor for the role of Draven: Luke Evans. Rumors also swirled that Alexander Skarsgård and Tom Hiddleston would star in the film. In a bit of an ironic twist, Skarsgård's brother Bill would eventually wind up getting the part. The writer of The Crow comics, James O'Barr, eventually boarded Gutierrez's film as a creative consultant. O'Barr said that he changed his mind after a conversation with Gutierrez, who wanted to adapt the original comic more closely. "That got me intrigued – the idea of adapting it from page 1 and going from there, including a lot of the darker or stranger elements of the comic dropped from the original film," O'Barr said. Sadly, Gutierrez wound up departing the film in 2017 — which is a shame, as leaning more into the darker elements of the comics would make The Crow reimagining stand out from its predecessor. Gutierrez would later release concept art featuring Hiddleston and Evans sporting Draven's iconic makeup, courtesy of makeup artist Bill Corso (Deadpool, Species). “We tried to make it as faithful to the graphic novel as possible. Grounded, and with attention to detail (I wanted to show the scar). Bill is brilliant, and did an amazing job,”