After spending time haunting (and hunting) the heroes of the It movies, Bill Skarsgård is looking to stop floating and start soaring. Or a least hanging out with a supernatural creature who does, as he's now nabbed the lead in the long-gestating reboot of The Crow.
An updated adaptation of James O'Barr's 1989 comic book tale of death, revenge and eternal love has been stalking through the halls of development hell for years now.
O'Barr's story focuses on Eric, a young man who is driving with his fiancee when their car breaks down. They're brutally assaulted and slaughtered by a gang, and Eric is resurrected by mystical crow to stalk and seek vengeance against those responsible for the crime. Alex Proyas' 1994 film retooled the story around rock musician Eric Draven, who is murdered along with his fiancee Shelly on Devil's Night in Detroit and hunts down their killers.
The movie based on Barr's tale became infamous for the on-set death of star Brandon Lee following an accident with a blank gun round. The film was followed by three sequels, The Crow: City of Angels, starring Vincent Perez in 1996, The Crow: Salvation starring Eric Mabius in 2000 and The Crow: Wicked Prayer in 2005, which had Edward Furlong in the lead. There was even a late-1990s TV series that featured Mark Dacascos.
With producer Edward R. Pressman still shepherding the project, a new Crow has cycled through various different creative teams, including directors Stephen Norrington and then F. Javier Gutiérrez (who had Luke Evans lined up to star). Corin Hardy took on the task of a reboot in 2017, with Jason Momoa on to be Eric but that fell apart over budgeting issues.
Now, though, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Ghost In The Shell's Rupert Sanders is directing a version scripted by Oscar-nominated King Richard writer Zach Baylin. Pre-production is in full swing, with shooting scheduled to kick off in June in Prague and Munich and a $50 million budget. So could it actually take flight this time?