It was about two months ago that it was revealed that Jack Huston and Jessica Brown Findlay would be taking the roles of Eric Draven and Shelly Webster, respectively, in the upcoming remake of The Crow, but now the production has found the performer that they want to play the central villain in the movie. New reports are coming in saying that Andrea Riseborough is in negotiations to play Top Dollar in the project, meaning that this new adaptation will be changing the gender of the character.
Deadline has the scoop on this casting development, noting that Riseborough has not yet officially signed on to the project. In the story, Top Dollar is the gang leader who orchestrates a group of thugs who love nothing more than to terrorize the streets of Detroit. One Devil's Night (the night before Halloween), the crew breaks into the apartment of guitarist Eric Draven, and rape and kill his girlfriend Shelly before knocking him out of a window. One year later, Draven rises from the grave as The Crow and seeks vengeance against those who destroyed his life.
In the Alex Proyas-directed adaptation of The Crow from 1994, Top Dollar was played by Michael Wincott. Thanks to the character's long black hair, one can imagine that the villain's appearance in the remake my not differ too much from the previous adaptation on an aesthetic level:
Andrea Riseborough, who hails from England, doesn't have a ton of blockbuster experience, though she has been a part of some acclaimed and notable films in the last few years. In 2010 she was a part of the ensemble in Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go, and starred opposite Tom Cruise in Joseph Kosinski's 2013 sci-fi film Oblivion. Last year was also a notable one for the actress, as she starred in what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would wind up calling the best film of the year: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
Up-and-coming filmmaker Corin Hardy is attached to direct The Crow, and it will be based on an adaptation of James Barr's comic series scripted by screenwriter Claire Wilson. Relativity Media is behind this remake, and while it's expected that the movie will be released some time in 2016, the studio has not yet made an official release date known. That being said, the casting process is starting to pick up steam, so don't be surprised if we hear about a production start date in the next few weeks or months.
