There’s A Movie-Watching Life coming in the near future detailing how owned I was by Alex Proyas’ The Crow. A story about a dead rock star being brought back from the dead to avenge the murders of he and his fiance, The Crow was about as deep as I got into what thankfully never progressed into full-on goth flirtation. Inspired by J. O’Barr’s graphic novel of the same name, The Crow franchise sits comfortably next to Poltergeist for the title of “most tragedy-prone franchise.” Brandon Lee’s untimely, on-set demise robbed us of perhaps our next great action icon. The sequels that followed were immense tragedies in their own right.
The potential reboot, wallowing in development hell for years now, continues one of the oddest casting trajectories this side of John Travolta in Hairspray. First we heard that Bradley Cooper was up for the lead of the doomed Eric Draven. Then, no joke, Mark Wahlberg was approached. Now comes a rumor from Bloody-Disgusting that once and future past Professer X, James McAvoy, is the latest to be tapped for the reboot.
Proyas’ Crow works in the context of the era which it was released, though it hasn’t necessarily aged well. Lee’s death and studio interference (search “Skull Cowboy” and YouTube) make the film one of the more hacked up studio releases of the 90s. So the original can certainly be improved upon, though Jesse Wigutow’s new script will surely have to be mindful of updating the character for the 21st century (or keeping the premise and opting for a new lead altogether). I could see McAvoy bringing the right amount of brooding to the role, though none of the names floated about this far have felt right for the project.
What do you think? Will we ever see a McAvoy-led Crow reboot?