The trailer for The Crow has just been released, and judging by what it has to show, it’s everything we’d expect from a modern remake of a cult classic movie.
This marks the release of the latest installment in a franchise that’s basically the goth subculture’s Bible, starring Bill Skarsgård, an iconic actor known for his portrayals of Pennywise in 2017’s It and its sequel It Chapter Two, as well as his roles in Barbarian, Hemlock Grove, and Castle Rock. Considering his prominence in the scary genre, we have very little doubt that his portrayal would be anything short of epic.
Still, we are talking about a remake and the reboot of the original 1994 movie that starred Bruce Lee’s son, Brandon Lee. The Crow is best known for its ’90s noir-cinemascapes, rock music, terrifying visuals, story of vengeance, and tragedy that surrounded not just the inception of its source material but also the death of its star. While we wait for the upcoming remake/reboot to grace the silver screens, let’s discuss the cinematic history of The Crow, from Brandon Lee’s portrayal to Bill Skarsgård’s. Let’s take it from the beginning.
The original 1994’s The Crow, directed by Alex Proyas, was actually based on a 1989 comic book series by James O’Barr. Not many know that O’Barr wrote the first issue of the 45-issue series as a way to cope with the death of his fiancé, who was killed by a drunk driver. In fact, the talented artist and writer put a lot of his anger and pain into his protagonist, Eric Draven, and every character is based on either someone he knew or on the most self-destructive aspects of his own personality.
The writer had very little interest in having The Crow comics published. However, Caliber Comics published his creation as a limited series in 1989. The comic was an instant success, which only continued to grow. This success was quickly followed by movie offers, with studios looking to buy rights to adapt the comic into a film. That eventually came to pass, but the production was marred by script rewrites and personal conflicts of those involved in script and screenplay development.
Several actors were considered for the part, but Brandon Lee, son of the legendary Bruce Lee, won O’Barr (who closely oversaw the production) over and landed the main role. Lee dropped 20 pounds to portray the protagonist and worked closely with the film’s crew, even performing his own stunts. But tragedy struck on set. Just eight days before the end of principal photography, Brandon Lee was accidentally killed on set due to a firearm mishap. This incident cast a somber shadow over the original The Crow and contributed to the mythos of The Crow being one of Hollywood’s cursed movies.
The production team decided to complete and release the movie, but Paramount Pictures, which was interested in distributing the movie, backed out of the deal due to the controversies surrounding filming and Lee’s death. Miramax picked up the film and added another $8 million to wrap up the production. Some rewrites were mandatory, and the few scenes that were left for Brandon Lee to film prior to his passing were left for his stand-in, the now-legendary stuntman Chad Stahelski. Due to Lee’s death, O’Barr later stated that he regretted ever writing the comic.
1994’s The Crow was a massive success for its time, both commercially and with the critics. Not only did the movie earn close to $94 million against its $23 million production budget, but it also reached the annals of critical acclaim and cult classic status. Its success led to the birth of a media franchise with three sequels — most of which featured different protagonists and none of the original cast, but none were able to match the success of the original movie.
This includes 1996’s The Crow: City of Angels (starring Vincent Perez), 2000’s The Crow: Salvation (Eric Mabius), and 2005’s The Crow: Wicked Prayer (Edward Furlong). These sequels didn’t fare well with the critics and the audiences — except for a small, dedicated fanbase — so they’re not really worth describing in detail. It suffices to say that none of the sequels, including the television series, have a rating higher than 20% on Rotten Tomatoes. That conveniently shortens this discussion and brings us right to the upcoming remake.
The original movie deserved a remake (though some fans aren’t particularly happy about it), and numerous attempts have been made to reboot the franchise over the years. This is also the case with Bill Skarsgård’s version of The Crow, which began its development in 2008. However, just like the whole franchise, it has been plagued by development challenges, rights issues, and creative differences that led to a series of starts and stops until January 2020. Work on the remake was officially revived at that point, and the development resumed.
Principal photography for the upcoming The Crow commenced on July 12, 2022, and wrapped production on September 16 that very year, after which the film entered virtual production. It’s currently scheduled to be released theatrically on June 7, 2024, in all theaters. Judging by what we’ve seen from the film’s trailer, the upcoming reboot will adhere to the source material much more closely, and thankfully, the production seems to have concluded without major incidents.