‘The Crow’ reboot starring Bill Skarsgård: Everything we know so far
This summer, Bill Skarsgård becomes the second acting legend’s son to play the titular role in a movie adaptation of the dark comic-book series The Crow. This new film is effectively a reboot of the 1994 movie starring Brandon Lee, son of cinematic martial arts specialist Bruce Lee.
We’ve already heard echoes of the original film in the trailer for Skarsgård’s version, with a narrator paraphrasing its most famous tagline: “When someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes something so bad happens that their soul cannot rest.”
However, from what the trailer shows us, it appears that this new film shows us more of Eric Draven’s life with his fiancée Shelly Webster before the two of them meet their fate on Devil’s Night. The 1994 movie famously opens with a crime scene in the aftermath of Draven’s murder and the fatal wounding of Webster.
This change to the narrative structure of Draven’s story is just one of many differences from the previous movie we can expect to see when this new version is released. Not least, advances in the visual effects used in the new movie have been able to count on more than double the budget of its 30-year-old counterpart.
But what else do we know about 2024’s The Crow so far?
Firstly, why is the reboot happening?
Many fans of the 1994 film have been asking this question, along with the director of that project, Alex Proyas, who said online that the original big-screen adaptation should “remain” a testament to Brandon Lee, the actor who starred in the film’s titular role.
Lee tragically died from a gunshot wound on set during the making of 1994’s The Crow because a prop gun hadn’t been checked properly due to negligence among the production crew. The association of this tragedy with the movie has made fans particularly aggrieved about the idea of a remake. Especially as Lee’s performance was lauded at the time of the film’s release, and it’s since developed a huge cult following.
Nevertheless, around 15 years ago, British director Stephen Norrington announced his intention to reboot The Crow with a harder-edged remake, which would be less gothic in its aesthetic than the original. Suddenly, in 2010, musician Nick Cave was brought aboard the project to work on the script.
The project then spent almost a decade in cinematic purgatory, with The Crow’s comic-book creator, James O’Barr, expressing his own apprehension about the idea. “I don’t have great expectations,” he told Comic Book Resources about the potential remake.
Proyas weighed in for the first time in 2019, telling the It’s Hughezy, Hello! Podcast, “I personally tried to squash it every time I hear of [a remake happening].”
But still, Hollywood studios did what Hollywood studios always do. Proyas himself predicted, “If Hollywood wants to make something that they don’t listen to schmucks like me who bring noble and moralistic issues.” And he proved to be right.
Film producer Edward R. Pressman, who’d raised the finances for the reboot from Relativity Media back in 2009, pushed ahead with the reboot in 2020, hiring King Richard screenwriter Zach Baylin to pen a new script.
So who’s involved?
Apart from Baylin on writing duties and Bill Skarsgård in the title role as Eric Draven and his supernatural alter ego, the new movie stars British R&B singer FKA Twigs in her first major film role. British fantasy film director Rupert Sanders is at the helm, with the supporting cast including veteran actor Danny Huston and Peaky Blinders’ Jordan Bolger.
Sanders has called Bill Skarsgård the rightful heir to Brandon Lee’s Eric Draven, claiming that his movie’s leading man honours the “fragility and beauty” which Lee brought to the role. The director has also described the film to Vanity Fair as being tonally “a bit like a Cure song – the beauty of melancholy”. It’s scored by German electronic composer Volker Bertelmann, who’s known for his
When is it coming out, then?
The Crow is first released in cinemas on Friday, August 23rd. This applies to the United States and certain other countries, although global release dates may vary.
This date represents a delay of around two and a half months after the movie was pushed back from its original June 7th release date. Let’s hope it’s worth the wait.
