Hitting problems due to the shut-down of studio Relativity Media this year, the remake of The Crow seems finally to be back on track. Corin Hardy (The Hallow) remains attached to direct the film, which will reportedly now start shooting in March next year.
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. And producer Edward R. Pressman himself sued to try and get the rights back: ultimately unsuccessfully. Relativity has re-emerged from its financial woes in a new iteration, managing to keep some of its film slate intact. If all goes according to plan, The Crow will be the first result.
Having lost both its potential Crows to date, with first Luke Evans and then Jack Huston signing up and then dropping out, Hardy's next job is to land his Eric Draven. "I've got someone in mind who would be a fresh and inspired decision," he tells Empire in the current issue. "It's not who you think..."
"It's been a strange couple of months," he goes on. "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 it's cursed - that would be terrible! Having just made an independent movie that took eight years, it feels the opposite."