The Crow Remake Flails Again; Jason Momoa, Director Corin Hardy Leave Project
by Erik Amaya
There is one iron-clad rule in the genre circles of Hollywood: that Robotech movie will never get made. But it seems a new edict is joining it — the Crow remake will also never get made.
Deadline reports star Jason Momoa and director Corin Hardy have exited the project following “creative and financial differences” with executive producer Samuel Hadida and Davis Films. The film was apparently set to begin production in five weeks.
Based on the comic book series by James O’Barr, the film was set to retell the story of Eric Draven, an up-and-coming rock musician who is brutally murdered alongside his girlfriend. He returns as “The Crow,” a spirit of vengeance painted up as a mime. He’s virtually indestructible as he carves a path across Detroit to gain satisfaction for his aborted future.
The series — and its collected edition — was groundbreaking and led to the 1994 Alex Proyas film. Sadly, that film was mired in the tragedy of star Brandon Lee’s death while filming a scene of gun violence. Nevertheless, the film went on to become a cult classic and a number of sequels emerged in its wake. A television series also followed, but none captured the same verve of the original. Feel free to draw your own conclusions as to why.
In the years since the last Crow sequel, rights holders have attempted to reboot the film series with directors like Rob Zombie and stars like Bradley Cooper coming onboard and leaving as development deals never quite pan out. Seemingly, the actual spirit of Eric Draven appears to halt another telling of his story.
According to Deadline’s report, worldwide distributor Sony may also leave the production as their deal was never actually closed; a point of contention which led to Momoa and Hardy leaving the project
To be honest, this seems like the best possible ending. The Crow is of its time and does not lend itself well to modern superhero movie philosophy. To remake it isn’t so much an act of sullying the original, but to misread why it worked the once and why it would not now.
Nonetheless, producers will continue their attempts to reanimate The Crow.