Some film projects become well known not because of how the final product turned out, but because of how long they languished in development hell. The reboot of 1994’s The Crow is one of those projects. Since the late 2000s, there have been numerous attempts to get a new take on the same-named comic by James O’Barr, with all of them falling apart for one reason or another. Well, evidently now The Crow reboot is back on, and this time the star of the IT movies is attached, along with a director who knows his way around fantastical cinematic storytelling.
According to THR, Bill Skarsgård, arguably best known for playing Pennywise the Dancing Clown in IT and IT Chapter Two, has been tapped Eric Draven in The Crow reboot, the role the late Brandon Lee played that role in the 1994 movie. Furthermore, Rupert Sanders, who helmed Snow White and the Huntsman and Ghost in the Shell, is now sitting in The Crow reboot’s director’s chair, and King Richard’s Zack Baylin is writing the script.
The last time The Crow reboot made any significant progress forward was in summer 2017, when it was announced that Sony Pictures would distribute the incarnation to the project that had Jason Momoa set to play Eric Draven under the direction of Corin Hardy, who’d first been reported to helm the feature back in 2014. The Crow was even slated for an October 11, 2019 release, but by the end of May 2018, it was reported that Momoa and Hardy left the reboot. Luke Evans and Jack Huston are other actors who were attached to play Eric in The Crow earlier in its development, while the list of directors includes Stephen Norrington and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.
Almost four full years later after Jason Momoa and Corin Hardy’s departures, Bill Skarsgård and Rupert Sanders have reportedly filled their shoes on The Crow. THR also shared that reboot is deep into preproduction and gearing up to shoot in Prague and Munich starting in June. The budget has supposedly landed in the $50 million range. Along with his Pennywise outings, Skarsgård has also starred in Deadpool 2, The Devil All the Time, Eternals and the Hulu series Castle Rock, and he’ll next be seen on the big screen in John Wick: Chapter 4.
Like the original comic book and the 1994 movie directed by Alex Proyas, The Crow reboot will tell the story of Eric Draven, a man who’s murdered alongside his fiancée, Shelley Webster. However, Eric ends up being resurrected a mystical crow and wastes no time seeking revenge on the people who killed him and took the love of his life away from him. Sadly, Brandon Lee was fatally wounded during the filming of the original Crow movie when he was shot with a prop gun that wasn’t properly checked. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum star Mark Dacascos also played Eric in the short-lived The Crow: Stairway to Heaven TV show, and Lee’s Crow movie was followed by three sequels, all of which followed different lead characters.
We’ll just have to wait and see if Bill Skarsgård and Rupert Sanders’ version of The Crow reboot fares better than its predecessors. Until then, keep your eyes locked on CinemaBlend for news on other upcoming movies.
