Can The Crow remake ever take flight in Hollywood? That’s the question that has plagued said reimagining for years, as Relativity’s horror/fantasy pic ricocheted from one director to another in what quickly became a truly torrid saga of false hope and non-starts.
It was during this time that Jack Huston, Luke Evans, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 star Bradley Cooper all came attached to the part of Eric Draven – a part that was originally brought to life by Brandon Lee all those years ago – at various stages, only to drop out before The Crow remake could garner a sense of momentum. And that’s before you even factor in Relativity’s financial woes, which resulted in the project uprooting for a new home at Davis Films, Highland Film Group, and Electric Shadow. Between them, those three parties have pledged their combined support to the re-adaptation, and though he’s no longer attached to direct, Rings helmer F. Javier Gutiérrez has turned in a status report on the dogged remake, claiming that it’ll take the form of an R-rated, $40 million feature.
Per Forbes, Gutiérrez, who remains involved in a producing capacity, also hinted that Jason Momoa (Justice League) and The Nun‘s Corin Hardy are still on board to engineer a feature film from the pages of James O’Barr’s cult graphic novel.
With The Crow, I haven’t talked to them in a while so I don’t know what is going on with that, but we are going to do an R-rated movie. I come from Europe, I’m very dark so I’m going to go for it. If any movie has to be R-rated then it’s The Crow. That’s how I got James O’Barr, the creator of The Crow, involved in the project because he said that if R-rated is the way that I wanted to go, he’s in. Even though I’m not directing it now, when I was going to be doing that I explained to the producers that they had to read and understand the comic book and not make the film a PG-13 version because it would make no sense. Some movies are for young people, I get it and maybe you can do it, but this movie is not necessarily for those young people and toning it down would give you a ghost of what The Crow should be.
The Crow remake continues to gestate in pre-production, but with a tentative title (The Crow Reborn) in place and Hardy and Momoa purportedly still involved, perhaps now is the right time to resurrect the cult classic?
