Even though almost everyone I’ve spoken to, and every comment I’ve read online, is negative towards The Crow being remade, it looks as though it’s going ahead. In fact Relativity is forging ahead at pace, installing a director and already lining up its star.
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo was officially named director last week, and now The Hollywood Reporter suggests Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, Limitless) is being lined up as the leading man. It’s only early negotiations, but the director and actor are rumored to have hit it off and share a vision for what is being billed as a new adaptation of the comic book.
The Crow is one of those films that will always retain something of a cult classic status, mainly because its star, Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, died during filming after a mix-up with the firearms used in one scene meant he was fatally wounded by a gunshot. It does help, however, that the film stands on its own two feet as being worth watching.
This means the very notion of a remake is doubly controversial. Not only is a movie being remade less than 20 years after the original was released, but a cult classic regarded by many to be untouchable is being messed with.
If Cooper does sign on to star in The Crow he’s a brave man. Not because of any supposed curse, but because he risks upsetting legions of fans who have said, in no uncertain terms, that they consider this remake both unnecessary and garish.
