Hey all, PCR here.
The original The Crow movie is one of my favorite movies of all time. That is not to say it is one of my favorite franchises of all time. City of Angels was an understandable and noble attempt to continue on after Brandon Lee’s tragic death, but the movie was sloppy and misguided and, in my opinion, doomed from the start merely because it was trying to be made at all and continue on. Every movie after that was cash grab… Salvation.. Wicked Prayer… the TV series with Marc Dacascos was “ok”, but I can’t give it any more praise than that.
Needless to say, the arc of The Crow franchise is almost as bleak as the story of Eric in James O’Barr’s original comic. Which brings us to the reboot. Or the attempted reboot. Or.. the ‘many-times-attempted’ reboot. Numerous names have been attached to the project… Mark Wahlberg, Bradley Cooper, Luke Evans, Jason Momoa, and most recently Bill Skarsgard. The Skarsgard version has been filming in Prague and wrapped production in September of ’22.
My biggest question is…
…is this film needed?
Other than Hollywood’s seemingly unending need to consistently lack original ideas and continue having to go back to the well.. who’s honestly asking for this? Is the multitude of failed and false-starts for this project something that will doom it before it even (eventually) hits theaters?
I love the comics, and I love the original.. but perhaps this is one we just leave alone. In closing, I leave you with a comment original director Alex Proyas made in a podcast interview in 2019.
“I personally tried to squash it every time I hear of one, not that I believe I’ve been able to. I think extenuating circumstances have stopped it being made because if Hollywood wants to make something that they don’t listen to schmucks like me who bring noble and moralistic issues. My point is that Brandon Lee made that movie what it is. He made that movie, he made that character. That character was not taken from a comic book, that was Brandon. And Brandon Lee died making that movie, he paid the worst price anyone could ever pay making a movie and it’s his legacy. The guy would have been a huge star after that movie. He wasn’t able to ever do that. That’s his final testimony to his talent and that’s why I finished the movie. I finished it for Brandon. After being devastated about what happened we shut down the production and I went back to Australia. Months later I went back and watched the movie and his family all the other actors, everyone involved, said ‘You’ve got to finish this movie because Brandon is so great in it’ and he was. I was able to watch it and see how great he was and I thought then the movie deserves to be completed because it’s his legacy. So that’s what the movie is, it’s not just a movie that can be remade. It’s one man’s legacy. And it should be treated with that level of respect.”
-PCR
