Last month we learned that Corin Hardy had been given the job of helm the long discussed remake of THE CROW, replacing F. Javier Gutiérrez who had signed on to helm the next installment in THE RING franchise. Hardy, whose debut feature THE HALLOW premieres this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival, recently discussed THE CROW remake with Fangoria and made it clear that he's going back to James O'Barr's graphic novel as the source material, stating…
…what I can say for now is that I’m a huge, huge fan of both the first film and James O’Barr’s graphic novel. I was obsessed with THE CROW when I was growing up. When I heard about the remake, what I thought could be very interesting today, 20 years later, especially with this whole Marvel Universe that’s happened, is that the Crow always stood as an outsider to me. I kind of felt he would be the right character for me if I got the chance to do it. And now that I have gotten the chance to do it, I’m very much going back to the graphic novel, particularly looking into the illustrations themselves as much as the story, and picking out all those beautiful ideas and details that haven’t really been used yet."
Hardy goes on to add that he wants THE CROW remake to be 'emotional and brutal', which O'Barr's graphic novel certainly was.
“I also want to open the story up in such a way that the Crow is now part of a world where there are the Marvel movies and the DARK KNIGHT movies. I intend it to be incredibly emotional and brutal, and all the things you’d want from a CROW film. I want to make a movie that I would have wanted to see, as a huge fan of THE CROW.”
THE CROW is slated for a spring production start with a script by Cliff Dorfman. Gutierrez will be exec producer and O’Barr a consultant. Joining Pressman as producers are Kevin Misher, Relativity’s Ryan Kavanaugh, Jeff Most (who produced the original with Pressman), and Jeff Waxman. Tucker Tooley, Bob and Harvey Weinstein and Dan Farah are exec producers.