UPDATE: Jason Momoa has confirmed that he has left The Crow reboot. Original article continues below the Instagram post.
No movie in recent memory has had quite as many problems getting made as the remake of The Crow. The project has been in development for years and has gone through studio bankruptcies, lawsuits, and more lead actors than we can count. It seemed that the troubles were finally behind the movie, however, when Jason Momoa signed on to play the lead. The movie had a release date and everything. But The Crow has apparently fallen to earth once more, as both Momoa and director Corin Hardy have reportedly pulled out of the film, making one wonder if this movie will ever happen...
Details are scarce and are limited to unnamed sources at this point, so it's far from clear what happened. However, according to Deadline, Samuel Hadida, the head of David Films who had the rights to the project never actually closed a deal with Sony, who was planning to distribute the movie. Sony is apparently on the verge of withdrawing as the distributor, which has directly led to the film's director and star walking away.
Jason Momoa becomes the latest in a long line of ex-Eric Dravens that includes the likes of Jack Huston, and Luke Evans, who were both actually attached to the project at one point. Countless names from Bradley Cooper to Norman Reedus to Tom Hiddleston were either in talks or rumored to be considering the project at various points over the last several years.
The movie had equal problems keeping a director. In fact, Corin Hardy had already left the project once before himself, when Relativity Media, who previously had the right to the franchise, went through a bankruptcy. While Relativity came out the other side of those proceedings still planning to make the film, they then lost the rights. Davis Media picked them up and brought Hardy back into the fold along with signing Momoa to star.
The exit comes pretty close to the last minute, as the film was in full pre-production and was expected to start shooting in the next five weeks. Needless to say, now everything looks to be coming to a screeching halt. Considering all the people who have walked away from this project already, it's unlikely there are other interested actors and directors simply waiting in the wings to jump in and pick things up, and even if there were, there's little point in doing all the work and spending all the money if there's no distributor to make sure the final product makes it into theaters.
The original Crow movie is, unfortunately, best known as the movie where star Brandon Lee was killed during filming in an accident with a prop gun. If you're inclined to believe in the idea that a movie can be cursed, there is certainly no shortage of evidence of something like that going on here.
