Even though the wildly sporadic film series will always have its fans, The Crow should have lived and died with its original star Brandon Lee. There, it’s been said already. After settling the lawsuit with The Weinstein Company, Relativity Media has been gung ho about this whole reboot business, which will hopefully start producing more news than rumors, seeing as how it’s finally found its star.
Without further ado, Relativity Media are in negotiations for the very much alive and well Luke Evans to play the titular character in the upcoming Crow remake, which has secured Spanish director F. Javier Gutiérrez to helm. Deadline reports they are even shifting their production and release schedule around in order to keep Evans, who had previously stepped away from the project due to other commitments.
Evans has been all over the place lately for his role in the upcoming Fast & Furious 6, and for signing on for the upcoming historical take on Dracula. He’ll also be seen in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug as Bard the Bowman. So even if his face gets painted over in this remake, you’ll be well aware of it by the time the film gets released.
On the director side of things, this will be Gutiérrez’s second feature, after 2008’s Spanish sci-fi crime drama Before the Fall, which was quite a hit at genre festivals around the world. This seems like a good fit, considering the last time we heard any actual plot details about The Crow reboot, it was set in Mexico, back when Stephen Norrington was attached to direct.
And if you’ll recall, everyone from James McAvoy to Tom Hiddleston to Alexander Skarsgard were all in talks to take on the title role recently, but Relativity Media’s faith in Evans persisted, and this damned remake has made its resurrection unavoidable.
Production of the film is now set to start in early 2014.
