The 1994 film “The Crow” was one of the first dark/gritty comic book films alongside Wesley Snipes’ “Blade” that helped to show studios and audiences that these superhero properties could be tailored for a mature audience with bitchin’ soundtracks as well and not just help sell toys/lunch boxes in the 1990s. The story mainly focuses on a slain musician and his activist girlfriend on Devil’s Night only to be resurrected a year later to enact revenge on his killers and the gangsters that ordered their murders. It became so popular that it spawned three other feature films with diminishing quality and returns, the second one “The Crow: City of Angels,” set in Los Angeles, and having rockstar Iggy Pop as a villain is maybe the most noteworthy of the batch with a solid soundtrack to boot. A Canadian television series “The Crow: Stairway To Heaven” attempted to finally bring back Brandon Lee‘s (Who tragically died in hospital after a firearms stunt gone wrong) Eric Draven with Mark Dacascos (“John Wick 3”) recast in the role but didn’t last too long. A new attempt at a feature film would eventually try to wiggle its way back to the big screen after multiple years of development and different actors/creatives getting involved.

Lionsgate has acquired the new film from director Rupert Sanders (“Ghost In The Shell”) and stars Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård (“John Wick 4”) as the newest version of Draven. Vanity Fair was able to release a batch of first-look images (See below) from the new film revealing their take on the undead anti-hero. Which obviously is taking more inspiration from modern musicians than the 80-90s goth and rock scenes the comic and film pulled took from. The rest of the cast includes FKA twigs, Laura Birn, Danny Huston, Jordan Bolger, and others.

Considering this is a modern incarnation of the James O’Barr limited comic book series that was originally published in 1989, the look of the Draven from the first film had originally taken inspiration from goth and rock bands of the 80/90s. Of course, with a remake it was expected “The Crow” could shift the look/design from those previous versions into something that would feel more comtempary to audiences. Seemingly taking a page from folks like Post Malone more than Jared Leto’s Joker, who had lifed his look from South African rapper Ninja of Die Antwoord for “The Suicide Squad.”

Skarsgård isn’t a stranger to mature genre projects with his upcoming Lionsgate actioner “Boy Kills World,” playing the main villain of “John Wick 4,” appearing in the twisty horror thriller “Barbarian,” and played Pennywise The Dancing Clown in the two recent “IT” movies.

A previous incarnation, of many, nearly had Jason Momoa (“Dune”) playing Eric Draven in the long-gestating remake but for whatever reason it fell apart with director Corin Hardy exiting as well.

“The Crow” recently landed a June 7 release date after Lionsgate delayed their “John Wick” spinoff “Ballerina” to next summer because of upcoming reshoots that hope to beef up the film’s action sequences. With promotion fully underway a trailer likely isn’t far behind.

SOURCE: VANITY FAIR