In just a few days, a brand-new reboot of The Crow will finally arrive in theaters. The project has had a long road, with numerous directors, writers, and actors attached over the decades. Unfortunately, the film hasn’t exactly been accepted with open arms, with some members of the original movie even speaking out against it, which came as a surprise to producer Molly Hassell.
“It should make people proud,” Hassell told THR. “I’m surprised it hasn’t made the original filmmakers more proud, because it’s a step in a different direction, but it’s a necessary step to deal with the age-old themes of love and loss.“
Alex Proyas, director of the original 1994 movie, took to social media earlier this year to say that The Crow should remain the legacy of Brandon Lee, who died during the production. “I really don’t get any joy from seeing negativity about any fellow filmmakers work,” Proyas wrote. “And I’m certain the cast and crew really had all good intentions, as we all do on any film. So it pains me to say any more on this topic, but I think the fan’s response speaks volumes. THE CROW is not just a movie. Brandon Lee died making it, and it was finished as a testament to his lost brilliance and tragic loss. It is his legacy. That’s how it should remain.“
Cliff Dorfman, who was once attached to pen the script for The Crow reboot, apparently saw the film earlier this summer and called it “horrible” and “unwatchable.“
Starring Bill Skarsgård and FKA twigs, the modern reimagining of the original graphic novel of The Crow by James O’Barr was directed by Rupert Sanders from a script by Zach Baylin and William Schneider. Here’s the synopsis: “Soulmates Eric Draven (Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.“
Co-writer William Schneider told THR that the original movie was a “touchstone” for him when he was growing up, but wanted to be sure Zach Baylin and himself left their own mark on the story. “We didn’t want to go the same route, because we felt like that did a disservice to the film,” Schneider said. “Instead, we wanted to chart our own course almost as a way to sort of celebrate it and say, ‘Hey, we found a new way into the story, and we want them both to exist with their own voices, with their own set of fans.’“
With all the negative press, The Crow is facing an uphill battle at the box office and isn’t expected to dethrone any of the recent blockbusters upon its release on August 23rd.