Hitting problems due to the shut-down of studio Relativity Media last year, the remake of The Crow seemed finally to be back on track, with reports that it might shoot this month. Not so, however. Though he hung on valiantly for longer than most, director Corin Hardy has now left the project, as new producer Dana Brunetti
once again re-starts the project from scratch.
While an official statement is unforthcoming so far, Hardy appeared to confirm the news overnight on his Twitter feed.
As troubled developments go, the new Crow is up there with the best of them. Blade director Stephen Norrington began working on it in 2008, but walked two years later. Subsequent directors Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and F. Javier Guitierrez would also both move on as development dragged. Relativity and the Weinstein Company got into a spat over the rights at one point, before Relativity declared bankruptcy last year. It's lost two Crows to date, first in Luke Evans and then Jack Huston. And producer Edward R. Pressman himself sued to try and get the rights back from Relativity: a process that's still ongoing, despite Relativity's re-emergence in revivified form and with some of its film slate still intact.
Brunetti, Kevin Spacey's producing partner, took the reins of Relativity a few days ago as its new president of production running TV and film operations. "I believe that the company has tremendous potential, and I welcome the challenge to take the company to the next level," he said. Pressman believes he'll now move forward with The Crow on his own terms, rather than in the form he inherited. Pressman's legal filings now include a complaint against Brunetti that his firing of Hardy has "undermined years of work expended by Pressman and has wasted valuable resources invested in the picture".
"With Dana coming aboard, we are giving him full creative rein," a Relativity spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter. "We want him to be able to reboot The Crow under his vision and guidance. We are optimistic he will create the best package for such an iconic franchise."
Which is sad news for Hardy, since The Crow was a genuine passion project for him. He does at least have other irons in the fire though: namely his still-simmering Yeti thriller Refuge. His last film, The Hallow, is up for an Empire Award this Sunday. It can't rain all the time.
"It's been a strange few months," he told us last year. "I had a full cast of actors coming together. We were set up in Pinewood Studios in Wales. I had my offices and art team ready... But I don't think The Crow is cursed - that would be terrible!"