Bill Skarsgård is your new The Crow
The It star will team up with Ghost In The Shell director Rupert Sanders to bring the long-gestating Crow reboot to life
Aux News The Crow
It actor Bill Skarsgård is now set to add The Crow to his list of iconic roles, as THR reports that Skarsgard has signed on to star in a remake of the 1994 superhero film. A remake of that movie—now best remembered, obviously, for the shocking death of star Brandon Lee on the film’s set back in 1993—has been languishing in development hell for some years now, but Skarsgård will team up with Snow White And The Huntsman and Ghost In The Shell director Rupert Sanders to bring the movie back to Gothic life.
As with the first film, the remake will presumably take most of its story cues from James O’Barr’s original comics, which would situate Skarsgård in the role of Eric Draven, a regular guy whose life is abruptly ruined and/or ended when gang members murder him and his fiancé. One visit from a magical bird later, and he’s back, in black, and seeking vengeance on his killers.
The Crow was a hit when it arrived in theaters in 1994, for reasons both ghoulish and straightforward. Directed by Alex Proyas, the film nearly quadrupled its budget by the time its box office run ended. (Despite the fact that it was also, per columnist Tom Breihan, “a goofy grunge-era exploitation movie that never could’ve been made anytime but 1994.”)
The script for the new film—which we’re just going to go ahead and assume won’t share continuity with any of the later, non-hit Crow movies, including sequels City Of Angels, Stairway To Heaven, and Salvation—is being written by Zach Baylin, who’s fresh off an Oscar nomination for King Richard.
As noted above, Hollywood has been trying to reboot The Crow for about 14 years now, generally to disastrous effect. Previous actors attached, either formally or not, to the role of Eric Draven in that intervening span have included Bradley Cooper, Mark Wahlberg, Luke Evans, James McAvoy, Tom Hiddleston, Jack Huston, Nicholas Hoult, Jason Momoa, and Skarsgård’s own brother, Alexander. Bill Skarsgård: Welcome to the Crow Club!
68 Comments
Christ, anyone who thought Marky Mark should be the Crow should be fired into the sun.
sounds like a bad Entourage plotline. AKA an Entourage plotline.
Yeah, but if he had been, there’s a chance we wouldn’t have had to put up with him for the last 30 years and we’d still have Brandon Lee.
…go on.
Eh, I wouldn’t mind an adaption that hews to the original comic more. Not that it was particularly fantastic, but Draven wasn’t superpowered. That he was still quite vulnerable was the main tension in the comic.
That’s nuts. In the movie his whole thing is that he can be shot a million times and he’s fine
Yeah, in the original, pretty underground, comic Draven couldn’t feel pain but he he could still be mortally injured. He got a second chance to avenge the horrific violence perpetuated on him and his fiancé but, he mostly tricks these people into situations where he can kill them by learning their weaknesses. After the movie Image bought the rights and made the protagonist, that switched between short series, un-killable.I should also note, I think the movie is fantastic, and better than the comic. Proyas made it better. Today though, with superheroes everywhere in cinema, if you’re going to remake The Crow the most interesting treatment you can take from the source material is to not make him a superhero.
Literally the other day I was like “are mall goths not into The Crow anymore?” At least this will revive that.I have very fond nostalgia of The Crow, but it’s not a *good* movie. It’s a very cobbled together movie because of Brandon Lee’s death. This could be a good move, potentially.
Eh, I’d say it’s good. It nails its aesthetic, there’s at least one excellent action set piece, and Lee lends the character some complexity that he never had in the sequels — a combination of wry humor masking rage underscored by a world-weary exhaustion. It’s not going to win awards at Cannes or whatever, but that’s because it’s a pulpy action movie, and it sits high in the ranks of the revenge thriller subgenre.
Good enough to get us Dark City, an underrated gem.
There were a lot of good but not great films in the 90’s that had great potential but fell just shy of that. I have a soft spot for Dark City, just as I do The Crow and Event Horizon but there’s just a few things that drag those movies down a tad but no less memorable.I think I loved the Ernie Hudson cop and the street girl relationship in that movie best. It gave a little depth to the city that seemed to be inhabited mostly by gangs of eccentric criminals.
mall goth
In two words you managed to mention three things that are relics of a previous age.
So . . . the other day?
There are very big, very real problems with The Crow, not least of which is that the action is not well staged. The production design is marvelous, the overall tone of the film is pretty good, but the script itself amplifies the problems of comic. The cartoonish yet thin characterisation of the villains barely worked in the comics but at least it functioned there as an expression of the author’s rage and pain. Transposed to a Hollywood action film, these ghoulish and grotesque antagonists almost undo the work of the production design. There’s something wrong when your villains are too one-dimensional and stupidly drawn to sell what’s essentially a melodrama. But all that said, I think I’d be prepared to forgive a lot more if the action sequences were well choreographed or otherwise compelling. But the film can’t seem to decide how the audience should be positioned in relation to the action.Honestly it’s the quite profound and nuanced performance from Lee that keeps the film afloat (and really all the actors are excellent, even as they’re directed in the wrong, uh, direction), and yet it rarely if ever manages to justify the amount of work he put in.They should keep the franchise dtv, and just lean into the martial arts renaissance that’s happening there. Iko Uwais or Tony Jaa could be a great Crow, and Scott Adkins could be the villain.
Tell this to the Nolan Batman franchise. The Crow walked so it could run.
I don’t think the film’s issues can be blamed on Brandon Lee’s death — most of his part had been filmed, and there were only three shooting days involving him left on the schedule. They did some chintzy editing and early CGI around the death and resurrection scenes. With a competent prop master the movie would basically be the same B-movie mess, with much less of a legacy because its entire mystique revolves around Lee’s death.
I think you’re really underestimating the appeal the movie had to teenagers. You might be right about the “mystique” or whatever but the legacy is bigger than Lee’s death. Its unique blend of horror and action. Its status as an early comic book adaptation. The soundtrack. If we’re suffering from nostalgia in the current culture, and a glut of comic book fare, there’s no way The Crow wouldn’t be in the conversation, regardless of Lee’s death.
It is an excellent movie. Great characters, great villain, perfectly cast from top to bottom, well written and great looking.Excellent, EXCELLENT movie.
I think the rumor that Brandon Lee’s death was left in the movie is what got people to go see it.
I think being a teenager in the 90s who watched MTV and horror movies is what got me and my friends to see it.(I know it’s not horror but horror adjacent was good enough for us.)
I went for the love of a 90s Goth Girl. Worth it.
A big part of the original movie was the soundtrack with music from The Cure, NIN, etc. If you’re gonna have a goth movie, you need the goth soundtrack to go with it.
Also peak era Stone Temple Pilots!
And Rollins Band. And Pantera. (Man, The Badge is such a killer track. And should be more popular in our increasingly cop-critical times.)
Yet not a single Sisters of Mercy track.
The soundtrack is so much incredibly better than the movie.
Yeah the soundtrack for The Crow and also the soundtrack for Blair Witch Project were two top tier ones as a late 90s goth teen- both had such gold on them
The original Crow still slaps. The sequels, not so much. It is very much a movie that could only be made in 1994
Salvation has it’s moments, and it’s got a decent cast.
I’ll second this. Salvation was an improvement over City of Angels, a movie I mostly remember for having a urine-yellow color pallet
Just cast Jared Leto. He somehow able to release difficult to make movies (Blade runner sequel, Suicide Squad, f***in Morbius).Bonus point if he got shot with live round.
And Alec Baldwin as the villian. I mean, what could go wrong?
Considering it was based on the comics, the originally movie was done well enough to feel like a Shakespearean/Poe like revenge movie. However given the concept of the Crow to be remade or continued in some capacity, I feel the rules of what justifies the crow to bring people back needs to be tweaked a little. The myth goes the crow is capable of resurrecting people who have been murdered, so that the victims may be able to seek justice on the person or people responsible for their death. This story is said to come from an old Native American legend. Given how everyday so many terrible brutal murders happen in this world, the concept of the crow would suggest the world would be filled with Crow people running around to get revenge.
That’s basically the plot hole of most ghost movies. If people who were murdered or had things left undone in this world become ghosts (as usually it is implied), why are ghosts rare? They should be everywhere.
I feel exactly the same way. Sadly movies and games are a beautiful drug to remind us of how much reality bites the taco.
Now I want tacosthanks
Hmm. City of Crows, eh? This sounds like something DC Comics would have done (at least twice) …and I kinda like it
Nöt my Thė Crøw!
Casting Eric Draven is only half the issue. How do you replace Michael Wincott?
Absolutely!That whole cast, actually, is tough to beat. Lots of great character actors.
That is an excellent question. Who is the “modern” Wincott? Who has that voice?
True story: on one of the attempts at this movie that got closer to actually happening, the Top Dollar character was a woman and was going to be played by Andrea Riseborough. I THINK this was the version that Jason Momoa was attached to, and that plot wasn’t in any way closer to the original comic but was quite different to the first film. I know way too much about The Crow franchise including the films, haha.
I’ve been thinking about this all day (because it’s a fantastic question) and I now have an answer: David Tyree Henry.
with Snow White And The Huntsman and Ghost In The Shell director Rupert SandersUgh, that guy again. The fact his claim to fame are two meddling movies at best, and had horizontal tango with Kristen Stewart while he was married dashed any hopes I have for this The Crow revival.
Why though? Do the likes of Gareth Evans (Apostle, The Raid series), Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, Andy Muschietti (IT, Mama), Sam Hargrave, David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde), Tim Miller not available?
Meddling is how you describe those kids and their Great Dane.You want “middling”.
Sanders had a brief, consensual, fling with Stewart but, because of that, he’s some talentless hack? These scary, lesbian witches….. they ruin everything.
Not just some “scary, lesbian witches”— both movies were… meh. I couldn’t finish either of them. About as exciting as watching paint dry. While I’m a fan of Bill Skarsgard, I have no desire to watch a movie involving Rupert Sanders, who was a talentless hack even before the affair was leaked.
“list of iconic roles”?List?Iconic?
Maybe he played Folder or Trash Can in the obscure “GUI: The Movie”.
The only thing more dreadful than Pennywise:Clippy.
“(Despite the fact that it was also, per columnist Tom Breihan, “a goofy grunge-era exploitation movie that never could’ve been made anytime but 1994.”)“Why pull one random, mocking quote when the movie has 85% positive reviews?
Least the casting seems right long as he doesn’t bust any weird dance moves id ay we’re good
No, just let it be. I love The Crow and hold it to an unreachable standard, admittedly, but it really is such a product of its time that it was already too late to recapture it by the time the first sequel came out. Even the (understandable) messiness of the effects and editing lend to why it works for its fans. If they can make a uniquely good movie, hey, awesome. I’ll definitely watch it. But the long list of failed attempts in the past don’t fill me with optimism.
Fire it up! Fire it up! Fire it up!
David Michael Kelly has never not improved whatever he’s in with his performance.
but how can they reboot the soundtrack? that’s still the most abiding legacy the movie left
I kinda doubt they’ll have the budget or gravitas to pull it off……but, Nine In Nails is still a thing…
Trent Reznor is a multiple Oscar winner these days. Give him and Atticus Ross the soundtrack to do and I bet the results would be amazing.
Stairway to Heaven was the TV show, not one of the 3 sequels.
Are you thinking of Highway to Heaven?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crow:_Stairway_to_HeavenNo, are you thinking of the Littlest Hobo?
The Crow remake? Seriously? What’s next, Darkman?
or even…
As has been stated, The Crow is very much a 1994 movie. I love it the way it is. It could absolutely be updated, but I am not sure that a studio will ever do it satisfactorily. The sequels coasted on the brand recognition (like horror movies) and were low budget crap that execs figured had an audience because it slapped “Crow” on the front. Putting actual money into it requires it to be as 1994 Crow as possible though, since it has built in brand synergy blah blah blah. It’s a safer bet.A lot of franchise continuations try (and imo fail) to straddle this line between respecting the movies that came before and also just creating something new. Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghostbusters: Afterlife… none of them could actually get away from the past and tell a new story because execs feared that fans were too dumb or gatekeeper-y to let go of the things they wanted. To many people, if there is a Star Wars movie it better goddamn have Luke Skywalker in it. I think the Crow is going to have the same problem since many of the reasons it was so popular (moody setting, ‘94-specific songs, nuanced performance from the lead, practical effect action, ability to skip past the world-building of all the powers/why Detroit looks more like Gotham than a real city, etc.) are just hard to replicate and what execs will want to do is replicate it exactly.
I still don’t understand this pointless trend of using the words remake and reboot interchangeably now. Reboot used to mean a fairly specific thing and now it’s used as a blanket term buzzword.
No! Jason Momoa or leave it alone.