Sometimes it seems that getting a remake of The Crow off the ground is almost as difficult as trying to get a third Ghostbusters made, but with movement happening on the latter, what will it take to get progression on the former? Of course, you’re immediate reaction may be, “Why does it need to?” the vitriolic distaste for remakes drives fan culture, and not all of it unjustifiably cynical. Still, some people want to see The Crow fly again, but damned if the Powers That Be can’t figure out a way to make it happen, especially since they keep losing directors and leading men. So let’s go right to Crow creator James O’Barr, who would he want as The Crow? Hint: he’s already fought vampires, Superman and Cylons.
Blastr’s Aaron Sager was at Wizard World Madison Comic Con this past weekend, and so was O’Barr, and apparently, he was in a mood to talk about the production of the new Crow. For instance, did you know that The Crow remake has cost $20 million so far and not a single inch (or byte) of film has been shot? To put that in perspective, that’s about $5 million more than the entire budget of the 1994 Crow directed by Alex Proyas and starring the late Brandon Lee.
Given what happened to Lee on the set of The Crow it might forgivable if lead actors get nervous about taking on the role of dead rocker turned undead revenger Eric Draven, but that wasn’t the case for the latest actor cast as Draven, Luke Evans. According to O’Barr, Evans’ option was set to expire and the cost of renewal was too high since the Dracula Untold star has gotten more famous since he first signed on.
So why not cut to the chase? Who would O’Barr like to see play The Crow? According to Sager, O’Barr put his money on Sam Witwer.
O’Barr said he still needs to convince [director Corin] Hardy of the choice, but when Evans exited, he phoned Witwer and told him he was now at the top of the list. He said Witwer’s reply was that he’d mow the creator’s lawn for the rest of their lives for the chance.
Witwer should be well-known to genre fans. He just completed a four-year stint as Aidan on Being Human, portrayed Doomsday in the eighth season of Smallville, played Crashdown on Battlestar Galactica, and was the guy in the tank whose story was never told in The Walking Dead. He also had a small role in The Mist and gave voice to Darth Maul on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. So he certainly knows dark and intense, but would Witwer’s resume, if not his name cache, be enough to convince producers to sign him up for The Crow? They can probably sign him up for a dollar amount far less than Luke Evans money I bet.
The Crow reboot will be out in theaters…. Eventually. Maybe. We’ll see.
Source: Comic Book Movie