Creative comings and goings in pre-production are perfectly normal, so maybe it's just the constant reporting that's making it seem as if the remake of The Crow is struggling to take flight. Mark Wahlberg passed on playing the vengeful resurrected zombie rock star, and Stephen Norrington walked as director after some "creative differences" with the producers. Now though, The Crow** may have a new director, in 28 Weeks Later's Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.
Fresnadillo is in the market for a next gig, since he's just about to complete work on Intruders, his horror thriller starring Clive Owen, Carice van Houten and Daniel Bruhl. The director of the really-rather-good 28 Days Later follow-up has already taken some meetings with current Crow honchos Relativity Media.
He's not the only director in the frame though, since Relativity are also talking to Javier Guiterrez, who made the 2008 Spanish sci-fi thriller Before the Fall, and is currently preparing House of Horror, based on a story by James Wan (Saw, Insidious). He's also got a new version of the horror chestnut The Monkey's Paw in the works, and the alien-oriented project The Greys, so he may have to let one of those spinning plates fall if he decides to tackle Eric Draven's return.
Whichever director ends up behind the camera however, both are certainly interesting choices, indicating that Relativity are at least aiming to continue down the unseen-Crow path that Norrington started out on (Nick Cave even put in some script work, although it's unclear now whether that will be used). Three weak sequels and a cheap TV series have tainted the legacy of the Alex Proyas / Brandon Lee film (dated now but still much beloved), so a new Crow will need, as Norrington intended, to return to those James O'Barr comics and remind us what was great about them.
Further announcements should follow shortly...