No joke, The crow takes off again, this time with Bill Scarsgard Starring in the “modern reinterpretation” directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman, Ghost in the Shell), Bloody Disgusting Learned. Grammy nominated singer-songwriter FKA branches (Honeyboy) also stars.
Pulled by the creator James O’BarrThe dark comic The Crow follows Eric Draven as he returns from the dead to track down his killers and avenge his murdered fiancé with the help of a mystical bird.
The new film is said to be a fresh take on the original material, with Skarsgård playing Draven and following in the footsteps of the deceased Brandon Lee.
Zach Baylinwho has an Oscar nomination for writing King Richard wrote the screenplay.
The project is well ahead of pre-production a start date in June, with locations in Prague and Munich. The budget is in the $50 million range, writes THR, which broke the news first.
“The Crow is beautiful, dark, poetic and at times disturbing,” says director Rupert Sanders. “It’s a story of love, loss, grief and revenge.”
The Crow is produced by Victor Hadida (Resident Evil and Silent Hill), Molly Hassell (Braven with Jason Momoa, Terminal with Margot Robbie), John Jencks (Honest Thief, Guns Akimbo) and Edward R. Pressman (The Crow with Brandon). Lee, Oscar winner Wall Street, American Psycho). Production companies are Hassell Free Productions, Electric Shadow Company, Davis Films and Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation in association with 30WEST.
The Crow was adapted for the big screen in 1994 and has been followed by three sequels and a short-lived television series. The character is something of a pop culture icon and has found its way onto shirts and posters and has been immortalized in plastic as toys.
Skarsgård is fast becoming a genre guy, having played Pennywise the clown in the It horror movies and also appearing in Hulu’s Castle Rock series, not to mention Villains and Assassination Nation.
THR describes the path taken to bring The Crow back to the big screen: “Director Stephen Norrington (Blade) was involved in one reboot, while F. Javier Gutiérrez (Before the Fall) and actor Luke Evans worked on another. Corin Hardy (The Nun) took on the task for a 2017 reboot, bringing in Jason Momoa for the lead. Then both men left in 2018 after a dispute over financial issues between the producer and distributor.
Image: Castle Rock – “Severance” – Episode 101 – Henry Deaver, a death row attorney, confronts his dark past when an anonymous phone call lures him back to his hometown of Castle Rock, Maine. Bill Skarsgard, shown. (Photo by: Patrick Harbron/Hulu)