Before Christopher Nolan took The Caped Crusader into a realm of darkness in 2005 with Batman Begins, there was another superhero who had a vice grip on gothic storytelling. The Crow has become one of the most iconic comic book stories of the 1990s, and many fans have clamored for a follow-up in the years since the 1994 cult (literally) classic first debuted. Now it looks like that follow-up is closer than ever, as The Crow Reborn has officially landed Sony Pictures as its distributor.
We've been around the block with reboot rumors for The Crow more times than we can count at this point, but the fact that Sony has officially been locked down as the distributor for the project is big news. There's still a long way to go toward getting the project made, but this is a huge step in the right direction. Not much is known about the overall creative direction of The Crow Reborn, other than the fact that it's being framed as a truer adaptation to the original comic book source material than the 1994 film.
This is a project that we have heard about off and on for years, with current Aquaman and Justice League star Jason Momoa and The Nun director Corin Hardy attached at various points in time. Although this Tracking Board report does not confirm whether or not they remain attached to The Crow Reborn, word around town makes it sound like Sony still tentatively plans to proceed with their involvement.
The Crow centers on a deceased heavy metal musician named Eric Draven who finds himself brought back from the grave by a crow. Endowed with superhuman abilities and immortality, he proceeds to go on a rampage to exact revenge for the murder of his fiancée. In premise and tone alone, The Crow is already an entirely different beast from the type of stories offered by the Marvel or DC universes, which could definitely make it appealing to fans who have grown tired of the big-budget PG-13 spectacles that characterize the summer season.
With that said, it's also no secret that diving back into The Crow well is going to represent a notable challenge for anyone who tries to take a crack at it. The original film has become infamous for the on-set death of Brandon Lee (who suffered a fatal gunshot wound when a prop pistol misfired), and as a result, his performance has become intimately linked with the character for many fans.
The Crow Reborn isn't the only superhero universe that Sony is in the process of developing at the moment. In addition to this long-awaited reboot, the entertainment giant is also going in on a full-fledged exploration of Spider-Man's corner of the Marvel universe -- which will kick off with the Tom Hardy-fronted Venom movie next year, followed by the Black Cat and Silver Sable team-up movie Silver and Black. The studio is also putting together a cinematic universe centered around Valiant Comics properties.
Now that The Crow Reborn finally has a distributor, we will keep you posted with more details related to the project as new information becomes available. As for the rest of this year, take a look at our 2017 movie premiere guide to see what else is on the horizon.
