I spoke to James O’Barr, the creator of The Crow, last year and he discussed writing the screenplay for The Crow remake. It was exciting to hear him excited about the new movie, especially after the original series crashed and burned.
The first Crow movie was brilliant, one of the best comic adaptations of all time. The second wasn’t very good, the third was a slight improvement over that sequel, and the fourth was one of the worst movies of all time. When O’Barr talked about the originals, he talked about “Brandon’s movie” referring to the late Brandon Lee. O’Barr had nothing nice to say about the other movies in the series.
At that time, O’Barr was promoting the new Crow remake, which he was excited to see that Javier Gutiérrez was going to direct the movie and Luke Evans was set to star. Those plans died later in the year. Since then, Colin Hardy signed on to direct the film, but now The Wrap reports that he may be leaving the project as well.
The reason? The Relative media bankruptcy. Everyone from Viacom and HBO to A&E Television and Brett Ratner had flocked to court to reserve their rights to projects they have rights to. As for The Crow remake, Relativity spent “in excess of $7 million” on the remake. This includes $2,5 million spent to exercise the options. In 18 months, they lose these rights if filming doesn’t start.
Jack Huston, who replaced Luke Evans as the star, left The Crow remake a few months back, and with the uncertainty of financing, Colin Hardy might leave as well. This could realistically cause the movie to not make the 18-month deadline needed to keep it. There are a lot of companies who have expressed interest in the franchise, but Relativity is not letting it go despite all the financial problems.
It seems that The Crow franchise might really be cursed after all.
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