The Crow (Bill Skarsgard / Danny Huston) (June 7, 2024)

Relativity and director Corin Hardy are searching for a new star for “The Crow” reboot, as Luke Evans has officially exited the project to pursue other projects, his publicist has confirmed to TheWrap.

Relativity declined to comment for this story.

With comic book movies all the rage these days, “The Crow” is a high-profile project in Relativity’s development stable. The reboot was seen as having plenty of potential given the original film’s status as a cult classic.

Evans was poised to play Eric Draven when F. Javier Gutierrez was attached to direct “The Crow,” but production was delayed and with no new start date in sight, Evans was forced to pass and move on.

He made statements to that effect in December during press rounds for “The Hobbit” but there was always the hope that Relativity could convince him to stick around as it scrambled to find a new filmmaker after Gutierrez left to direct “Rings” for Paramount.

Hardy signed on in early December but has been busy with post-production on his feature debut “The Hallow,” which premieres at Sundance this week. Now that Evans has officially parted ways with the project, Hardy will have the opportunity to put together his own vision for the film.

Despite all the speculation that Evans was preparing to depart the project late last year, he was still listed as starring in “The Crow” on IMDb as of Saturday afternoon.

Asked in December whether “The Crow” was still progressing, Evans offered a candid response to Den of Geek. “It’s not, no. No at the minute… ‘The Crow’ is not, not for me, I think it’s a little… I mean I’m sure it’s going to go ahead at some point, but I have other projects that are greenlit and ready to go and projects that I’m very interested in and you know, I can’t wait much longer!”


Evans made his final decision in the wake of “Dracula Untold’s” international success of ($215 million worldwide) before Relativity hired Hardy, who will start meeting with new actors soon.

Tom Hiddleston was initially sought to star in “The Crow” reboot but he passed on the role despite an impressive makeup test.

Evans will soon be seen in Ben Wheatley’s “High-Rise,” and he’s planning to reteam with the director for “Free Fire.” He recently played the villain “Fast & Furious 6” and will appear in the upcoming short film “Fast & Furious: Supercharged.”

joey con carne wrote:Luke Evans' career is poppin' these days. Good for him.

There will always be a special place in my heart for the original The Crow. If they do remake this, I hope they steer clear of the original style and writing. It was cheesy and all that but it must stay with the original.

joey con carne wrote:I meant the "writing and style" of the original film. I didn't even know it was based on a book. Book or comic book? Either way, I didn't know that.

EXCLUSIVE: Relativity Studios has set its sights on Jack Huston to play the lead character in the Corin Hardy-directed remake of The Crow. Talks are in the early stage. This is the second coveted job Huston has been chased to do since his standout portrayal as the masked, war-scarred assassin Richard Harrow on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Huston right now is starring in the other, playing the lead role in Ben-Hur, the massive pic inspired by the 1959 William Wyler-directed classic that starred Charlton Heston. The adaptation of the 1880 Lew Wallace novel is being directed by Timur Bekmambetov for MGM and Paramount.

The Crow, a remake of the 1994 Alex Proyas-directed adaptation of the James O’Barr graphic novel about a murdered man who comes back for revenge, has taken on its own pedigree of cool because of the emergence of its director Hardy. He helmed the animated short Butterfly and directed vids for Ed Sheeran and others. He made his live-action feature directing debut on The Hallow, the thriller which got acquired at Sundance. Huston is being courted for the role originated by Brandon Lee. Edward R. Pressman is producing with Kevin Misher, Relativity’s Ryan Kavanaugh, Jeff Most — who produced the original with Pressman — and Jeff Waxman. Tucker Tooley, Bob and Harvey Weinstein and Dan Farah are exec producers.

The Cliff Dorfman-scripted pic will go into production in the spring. I am not sure Huston will make the deal, but they want him and signs are looking good. Stay tuned. Huston is fast rising. He’s playing Wickham in the Burr Steers-directed adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride And Prejudice And Zombies, alongside Lily James, Sam Riley and Bella Heathcote. Huston wrapped the George Tillman-directed Fox 2000 adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ The Longest Ride for Temple Hill partners Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, and he scored in a West End production of Strangers On A Train and was in American Hustle.

ForeverBlu wrote:Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

EXCLUSIVE: The Crow will take flight with Jack Huston now set to play the starring role originated by Brandon Lee. Huston has closed his deal to play Eric Draven, the tragic hero in a film that will be directed by The Hallow‘s Corin Hardy  and will begin production in 2015. He’ll do this after he finishes shooting the title role in the Ben Hur remake that Timur Bekmambetov is directing for MGM and Paramount. That means after his superb run as the disfigured assassin Richard Harrow in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, Huston has gotten the title job in two major remakes.

Huston will next be seen starring in the George Tillman Jr-directed adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel The Longest Ride, and plays Wickham in the Burr Steers-directed Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. His first big feature job came in American Hustle. Deadline revealed last month that Huston was the actor that Relativity, original producer Edward R. Pressman and Hardy had fixed on for the lead in the adaptation of the James O’Barr graphic novel. Claire Wilson is writing the latest draft.

Pressman is producing with Kevin Misher, Relativity’s Ryan Kavanaugh and Jeff Waxman. Tucker Tooley and Harvey and Bob Weinstein are among the exec producers, and O’Barr is a consultant on the film. Huston is repped by UTA, The Artists Partnership and Untitled Entertainment. Wilson is represented by UTA and Casarotto Ramsay & Associates.

Jack Huston has dropped out of “The Crow,” Variety has learned.

The “Boardwalk Empire” star was slated to take on the role originated by Brandon Lee in the 1994 film of the same, but had to drop out due to scheduling issues. “The Crow” is currently in pre-production in Wales.

“Jack Huston is unfortunately unavailable to continue with us on ‘The Crow,'” said director Corin Hardy in a statement. “‘The Crow’ is an amazing project, and I am grateful that we have the time and patience to get it right. We look forward to unveiling our new lead and starting to film over the next several weeks.”

Relativity Studios is backing the film, and is eyeing Nicholas Hoult and Jack O’Connell, among others, as possible replacements. The studio is currently in negotiations to bring Forest Whitaker on board the project in another role, according to a source close to Relativity.

Relativity released its own statement about Huston’s departure. He joined the project this spring after Luke Evans (“Fast & Furious 6″) exited the production.

“Jack is a remarkably gifted actor, and we look forward to working with him in the future,” the studio said. “Corin Hardy has a tremendous vision for ‘The Crow,’ and we are working closely with him to continue prepping the movie and supporting him as he brings his vision to the bigscreen.”

Huston’s upcoming projects include “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” and the starring role in “Ben-Hur.”

ForeverBlu wrote:Just cancel it already.

The Crow reboot just can’t catch a break. A new adaptation of the James O’Barr comic—which was previously turned into a film in 1994 starring Brandon Lee—has been in the works at Relativity for a very long time now. Going as far back as 2010, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen director Stephen Norrington was attached to helm a redo written by Nick Cave. After Norrington’s departure, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo signed on to direct with Bradley Cooper in talks to star. The next iteration saw F. Javier Gutierrez at the helm, as a long list of actors were reported as joining/being in talks/circling the project including Tom Hiddleston and James McAvoy. Then Luke Evans officially signed on in 2013, only to see both Evans and Gutierrez depart last year. The most recent incarnation had Corin Hardy directing, but it appears the redo has hit what could be its final (and fatal) snag: the bankruptcy of Relativity.

The studio filed for bankruptcy earlier last week, leaving much of its slate in a state of limbo—including The Crow. While the studio’s official line is that it still plans on making the film and starting production this fall, THR reports that pre-production on The Crow has stalled in the U.K., with “several” department heads and other members of the production team having left the project last week.

Despite star Jack Huston dropping out in June, The Crow reboot was actually the closest it’s ever been to becoming a reality, with Hardy overseeing pre-production and an aim to to start filming at Pinewood Studio’s new stages this year. But Relativity’s financial situation has now put the project’s future in doubt, and it’s unclear if it’ll come out of this debacle intact. We haven’t officially heard word that the film has been scrapped, but hopefully some clarity on its status will arrive soon.

Relativity remains in the midst of ongoing efforts to reorganize in the wake of declaring bankruptcy, and “The Crow” is the company’s top production priority, as Relativity has already invested “in excess of $7 million” in the remake.

Tyger wrote:This cursed movie is their priority and they're in bankruptcy....hmmmmmmm

It looks like Jason Momoa is going from being a Dothraki warlord and an ocean-friendly superhero to being the next man in line to be the titular character in THE CROW. The Game of Thrones alum is currently in talks to star in Relativity’s noir-soaked, vigilante reboot.

Momoa took to Instagram to announce the news with a snapshot of him and director Corin Hardy having a pint of Guinness with the caption, “The only way to officially seal the deal as men is (with) a pint of black beauty.”

The Crow remake has been sitting on the shelf for quite a while and has been through a fair share of personnel changes. At one point Jack Huston was attached to star, but he dropped out due to many delays. The reboot’s revolving door of directors has included Stephen Norrington, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, and F. Javier Gutierez before Hardy boarded and there has been an endless list of writers attached to the project with the most recent being Cliff Dorfman, who penned the script for the Tom Hardy/Joel Edgerton vehicle Warrior. Ed Pressman, producer of the 1994 original is set to produce alongside Ryan Kavanaugh and Dana Brunetti.

Based on the graphic novel by James O’ Barr, the 1994 original was directed by Alex Proyas and starred Brandon Lee, who tragically died on set in an accidental shooting.

In addition to his forthcoming role as Aquaman in the DCEU’s Justice League and a 2018 solo pic, Momoa can be seen in Ana Lily Amirpour’s “cannibal love story” The Bad Batch, which will premiere at the New York Film Festival later this year. He can also be seen in the action pic Braven with Steven Lang and the upcoming comedy Going Under opposite Bruce Willis.

ForeverBlu wrote:

Hollywood's been trying to get a reboot of The Crow off the ground since time out of mind (one fun thing you can do is search "The Crow" on this site, and look back at all the articles we've written about this never-happening dead-end over the past six years). We've seen it go through multiple directors, multiple stars, and multiple iterations, but none of them have come close to crossing the starting line.

And now it's got a new home:

"The long-in-the-works remake of the cult supernatural revenge action movie that starred Brandon Lee, titled The Crow Reborn, has landed at Sony Pictures, which has signed to distribute the feature project."

Yes, that's right: Sony, who recently did a tremendous job handling the release of another long-gestating project (The Dark Tower), has officially signed on to distribute the Crow remake, following a full decade of Relativity threatening to do it themselves.

Last we heard, Jason Momoa was onboard to headline the project with Corin Hardy (The Hallow) directing, but that was last August. For what it's worth, THR - who broke the news about The Crow heading to Sony - says Momoa and Hardy are expected to make the jump alongside the project "in the near term".

Anyway, good luck to Sony on this one, and to everyone else involved. If you get this thing made, you will have succeeded where dozens of others have failed.

The Crow has seen its wings clipped yet again. Sources tell me Jason Momoa and director Corin Hardy formally withdrew from the film this morning. This after Sony was close to exiting as the film’s worldwide distributor. I’m told this has to do with creative and financial differences with Samuel Hadida, whose Davis Films holds underlying rights and who was financing the film. Production was gearing up to start within the next five weeks in Budapest, and the picture was in full pre-production with Hardy presiding.

Sony Pictures announced last September that it had picked up the film for worldwide distribution, and announced an October 11, 2019 release date. Insiders said that deal hasn’t closed. My sources said Hadida’s inability to close a deal with Sony left the studio in exit mode, and that directly precipitated the exits of the filmmaker and star.

After years of false starts and many rings of development hell, The Crow appears ready to fly again.

Bill Skarsgard, who played Pennywise the Clown in the It horror movies, will star in the reboot of the supernatural revenge thriller that will be directed by Rupert Sanders, best known for helming Snow White and the Huntsman and Ghost in the Shell.

Longtime Crow steward Edward R. Pressman and Malcolm Gray, a co-producer on the 2019 Chadwick Boseman thriller 21 Bridges, are producing.

Crow was an indie comic written and drawn by James O’Barr in the late 1980s that told the dark tale of a man and his fiancee who are assaulted and killed by a gang after the couple’s car breaks down. The man is resurrected by a crow and exacts vengeance on those who took his life and the life of his love.

Skarsgard will play Eric Draven, the man on the revenge mission. Zach Baylin, who is coming off an Oscar nomination for penning King Richard, wrote the script.

The project is well into preproduction ahead of a June start date, with shooting to take place in Prague and Munich. The budget is in the $50 million range, and it does appear like the film will actually take flight.

Fans of The Crow, however, have plenty of reasons to be skeptical that this iteration won’t get derailed at the last minute, given the franchise’s infamous history. The first movie, released in 1994, was a critical and box office hit and gained a fervent cult following after the on-set death of star Brandon Lee.

A sequel, titled The Crow: City of Angels, starred Vincent Perez. It was released in 1996 and was followed by two more films, The Crow: Salvation (2000) and The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005), with Eric Mabius and Edward Furlong as the respective leads. There was even a late-1990s TV series that starred Mark Dacascos. But since Wicked Prayer’s 2005 opening, the franchise has seen plenty of lift and drag.

Director Stephen Norrington (Blade) was involved with one reboot, while F. Javier Gutiérrez (Before the Fall) and actor Luke Evans worked on another. Corin Hardy (The Nun) took on the task of a reboot in 2017 and attached Jason Momoa to star, but both men left in 2018 after a clash over financial issues between producers and the distributor, clipping the project’s wings once again.

Skarsgard, who helped the It movies scare up over $1.1 billion at the worldwide box office, will be seen in the upcoming John Wick: Chapter 4 and is currently filming the action-fantasy Boy Kills World. Ironically, he voiced a character named Kro in Marvel’s 2021 movie Eternals.

Sanders developed a name as a commercial director adept at visual wizardry before making his feature debut with 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman, a big-budget fantasy starring Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth. His 2017 outing, the adaptation of manga Ghost in the Shell, starred Scarlett Johansson.

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate‘s John Wick spinoff Ballerina starring Ana de Armas will be delayed a year from June 7, 2024 to June 6, 2025. The move comes as John Wick architect Chad Stahelski has inked a new deal with Lionsgate to oversee the franchise. He’s working with Ballerina director Len Wiseman on additional action sequences for the movie, to amp it up even more than it is.

Advance tracking is already hot on Ballerina, Lionsgate just wants to make the feature, produced by Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee’s Thunder Road even better. Currently, the Ballerina stands alone on her new summer 2025 date.

Now, there’s nothing for exhibition to fret, for the Rupert Sanders’ redux of The Crow will be taking over Ballerina‘s summer date of June 7 this year. Bill Skarsgård takes on the iconic role of The Crow in this modern reimagining of the original graphic novel by James O’Barr. Soulmates Eric Draven (Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right. Danny Huston, Laura Birn, Sami Bouajila, and Jordan Bolger also star. Pic was penned by Zach Baylin and Will Schneider, based on the graphic novel. The Crow is produced by Victor Hadida, Molly Hassell, John Jencks, Samuel Hadida, and Edward R. Pressman.

Also bowing on June 7 is New Line’s horror movie, The Watchers, from Ishana Night Shyamalan.

In more good news for January 2025, Lionsgate is adding an untitled Guy Ritchie directed movie to Jan. 17 — MLK weekend. However, Amazon MGM Studios already has an untitled Jason Statham film there. Who will blink? The latest Ritchie movie reteams him with stars Henry Cavill and Eiza González following their upcoming Lionsgate film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, (which is coming out on April 19 this year). Also dated for MLK weekend 2025 is Sony’s Paddington in Peru. If all movies stay in January, that brings the current count for wide entries up to six titles, which is one more than January 2024’s five wide releases.

UPDATE: Here’s our first look at Bill Skarsgard in “The Crow.” As you can see, they’re not looking to replicate Brandon Lee’s iconic look in the 1994 film. This is a brand new interpretation of the cult classic.

EARLIER: It seems as though Hollywood has run out of ideas. Hell, there are hundreds of great books out there begging to be adapted, that would make for exciting movies — instead, we’re hearing of beloved classics like “Vertigo,” “The Wizard of Oz,” and “The French Connection“ getting remade. It’s quite baffling.

Here’s another example. Lionsgate has announced that their remake of the 1994 cult classic “The Crow” will be released on June 7, 2024. Bill Skarsgard stars in the remake — he’ll be taking on the role of Eric Draven, which was made iconic by Brandon Lee in the original.

Suffice to say, this remake of Alex Proyas’ 1994 film, which was based on James O’Barr’s comic book series, has been a misbegotten idea from its very inception. Here’s the synopsis:

   The night before his wedding, musician Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and his fiancée are brutally murdered by members of a violent inner-city gang. On the anniversary of their death, Eric rises from the grave and assumes the gothic mantle of the Crow, a supernatural avenger. Tracking down the thugs responsible for the crimes and mercilessly murdering them, Eric eventually confronts head gangster Top Dollar (Michael Wincott) to complete his macabre mission.

Skarsgard is joined in the cast of “The Crow” remake by singer FKA twigs, who plays Draven’s girlfriend/fiancée, and Danny Huston (“Yellowstone”). Rupert Sanders (“Snow White and the Huntsman”) is directing, from a screenplay by Oscar nominee Zach Baylin (“King Richard”).

The fact that it wrapped filming two years ago, and there are still no images or trailer, tells me something’s off with this one, and why wouldn’t it be?  

The whole raison d’être of the original was Brandon Lee. He’s the reason why it’s had such a healthy shelf life. Lee haunts every frame of “The Crow,” which had eerie parallels to his untimely death, a case of art imitating life.

Dariusz Wolski’s noir photography was another iconic component of “The Crow”. Proyas made a fever-dream of a film that I don’t think can really be replicated today — four years after that one, he directed another cult classic, “Dark City.”

UltimateMarvel wrote:Did anyone even watch the trailer? His makeup could have been better I think. But this is the most ripped I've seen Bill so great job on that.

FKA twigs is a music artist and I see her pop up in unexpected movies. I think I saw her last in Honey Boy with Shia.

Rusty wrote:Trailer looked alright but it's been so long since I've seen the original I can't even remember it.  The only thing I ever retained was that Brandon Lee was accidentally killed on set when shot with a prop gun.

WyldeMan wrote:No I still haven't gotten around to watching the trailer but I'm sure I will eventually just to confirm my extreme doubt.

WyldeMan wrote:I'm pretty sure Twiggs is also the woman whos accusations cancelled Shia then she went on to have a baby with an unpronounceable name with Elon Musk. That's the sum total of my entire knowledge on her as I've never heard a second of her music or seen her in anything before.

Rusty wrote:Trailer looked alright but it's been so long since I've seen the original I can't even remember it.  The only thing I ever retained was that Brandon Lee was accidentally killed on set when shot with a prop gun.

UltimateMarvel wrote:This movie became a cult classic and I'm surprised they haven't tried to make a sequel or didn't even try to remake it in the last decade with the rise of superhero movies.