Back in October of last year, we brought you the news that director Stephen Norrington (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) had exited the director’s chair of Relativity Media‘s upcoming reboot of The Crow. At the time, I had truly hoped it was the beginning of the end for the proposed reboot… sadly, I was wrong.
Relativity Media has announced that Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) has signed on to direct the reboot. Check out the press release below, along with my thoughts in The Shakedown.
Relativity and Edward R. Pressman Sign Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to Direct The Crow
Production Start Targeted for Fall 2011(Beverly Hills, CA) April 7, 2011 – Relativity Media’s President of Worldwide Production Tucker Tooley and Edward R. Pressman, the prolific producer behind The Crow franchise, announced today they have closed a deal for Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) to direct a re-invention of The Crow, the 1994 smash hit film based on the comic book series and comic strip by James O’Barr. Relativity and Pressman will be teaming with Spain-based Apaches Entertainment on the production which is targeted to start in Fall 2011.
Fresnadillo is best known for directing 28 Weeks Later, the post-apocalyptic horror sequel to 28 Days Later, which he co-wrote and produced with long-time producing partner, Apaches Entertainment’s Enrique López Lavigne. Fresnadillo also directed the critically-acclaimed Spanish-language film Intacto and is currently in post-production on Intruders starring Clive Owen, also being produced by Apaches Entertainment. Fresnadillo will collaboratively develop the script once a writer is attached to adapt the screenplay. Casting has not yet been announced.
The film is being produced by Edward R. Pressman, Jeff Most, Relativity’s CEO Ryan Kavanaugh, and Apaches’ Enrique López Lavigne and Belén Atienza. Relativity’s Tooley (The Fighter) will serve as executive producer. José Ibáñez, Pressman Film Corporation’s Jon Katz, and Apaches’ Jesús de la Vega will serve as co-producers.
The Crow adaptation will be a reboot of the iconic cult character Eric Draven, who’s resurrected as The Crow to avenge his wife’s murder so he can reunite with her in the hereafter, as first envisioned by graphic novelist James O’Barr.
“Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is an incredibly talented and imaginative filmmaker,” said Tooley. “We are thrilled to have him at the helm and are excited to work with both Pressman and Apaches on what we all believe will be a compelling and innovative reimagining of The Crow.”
Producer Edward R. Pressman remarks, “The original Crow was groundbreaking cinema; its gothic visual and musical ideas influenced a generation and cinema itself. With Juan Carlos, we have every confidence that his new Crow will have a similar impact on the contemporary audience.”
Relativity recently had Golden Globe®-winner and seven-time Oscar®-nominee The Fighter in theatres, via Paramount Pictures, starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo and Amy Adams as well as Golden Globe®-winner and eight-time Oscar®-nominee The Social Network via its partnership with Sony Pictures. Looking ahead, Relativity is releasing the highly-anticipated Immortals on November 11th, 2011, starring Henry Cavill, Stephen Dorff, Isabel Lucas, Freida Pinto, Luke Evans, Kellan Lutz, with John Hurt and Mickey Rourke. The studio recently announced its production of Snow White, starring Oscar®-winner Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen, Armie Hammer as the prince, and Lily Collins as Snow White, beginning production in June.
UTA represented Fresnadillo and Apaches Entertainment on the deal with Patrick Knapp of Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal LaViolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman, LLP and Katz brokering for Pressman Film Corp.
ABOUT RELATIVITY MEDIA, LLC
Relativity Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company that focuses on creating, financing and distributing entertainment content and intellectual property across multiple platforms, as well as making strategic partnerships with, and opportunistic investments in, media and entertainment-related companies and assets. Relativity owns and operates Rogue, a company that specializes in the production and distribution of films targeted to the 13-25 year old audience. Building upon its foundation of financing and producing films, Relativity has grown to include music, sports and television divisions and the next-generation social network iamrogue.com. Relativity also owns and operates RelativityREAL, Relativity’s television arm, which is currently producing 14 series and more than 20 pilots including “Police Women” for TLC, “Coming Home” for Lifetime, and “The Great Food Truck Race” for The Food Network.To date, Relativity has committed to, produced and/or financed more than 200 motion pictures. Released films have accumulated more than $15.0 billion in worldwide box office revenue. Relativity’s recent films include Salt, Despicable Me, Grown Ups, Charlie St. Cloud,Dear John, It’s Complicated, Zombieland, Couples Retreat, Get Him to the Greek, Robin Hood, and, most recently, The Fighter, Little Fockers, James Cameron’s Sanctum in 3D, Season of the Witch, Take Me Home Tonight, Limitless, and The Social Network. Upcoming films for Relativity include Immortals, Shark Night 3D, Hop, Bridesmaids, and Cowboys & Aliens. 36 of the company’s films have opened at No. 1 at the box office. Relativity films have earned 60 Oscar® nominations, including nods for Nine, A Serious Man, Frost/Nixon, Atonement, American Gangster and3:10 to Yuma, The Wolfman, The Social Network and The Fighter. 55 of Relativity’s films have each generated more than $100 million in worldwide box-office receipts.
ABOUT EDWARD R. PRESSMAN FILM CORP.
Founded in 1969, Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation has produced over 75 world-class motion pictures and helped launch the careers of many of the most prominent figures in the movie industry. The company’s extensive body of work includes groundbreaking films by directors such as Oliver Stone, Terrence Malick, Sam Raimi, David Byrne, Kathryn Bigelow, Alex Proyas, Brian De Palma, David Mamet, Charles Burnett, Abel Ferrara, Wayne Kramer, Mary Harron, Jason Reitman, and Werner Herzog. Led by true industry veteran, Edward R. Pressman, the company is dedicated to producing quality theatrical motion pictures and will continue its 40-year tradition, forging new territory in both the independent and Hollywood arenas. The company is currently in post production on The Moth Diaries, the latest feature from Mary Harron (American Psycho).
ABOUT APACHES ENTERTAINMENT
Apaches Entertainment is a film production company based in Madrid, Spain, which was founded in 2009 by producers Enrique López Lavigne and Belén Atienza. Apaches is currently producing The Impossible, written by Sergio Sanchez, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona and starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts for Summit and Telecinco; as well asIntruders, written by Jamie Marques and Nico Casariego, directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and starring Clive Owen for Universal Pictures International and Antena 3.
[The Shakedown]
It looks like they’re scrapping the script that Stephen Norrington was working on with Nick Cave and starting over from scratch with Fresnadillo and a yet-to-be-named writer. I find it so interesting that Pressman would invoke the name of The Crow‘s creator (James O’Barr) within the very press release announcing the director for the reboot that O’Barr has told us exclusively that he had nothing to do with, back in February of last year:
“Other than greed, there’s no reason to do this.”
“I gave The Crow a closed ending. There is nothing new to add [to the story].”
“Ed Pressman is all about money. Granted, the movies are about money,… it’s a small intimate story but if the core romantic element isn’t there, there’s nothing left!”
Back when Norrington was helming the film, it was stated that the character played by Brandon Lee in the Alex Proyas directed version of The Crow, Eric Draven would not be used.
“I don’t have a lot of faith because it’s the same producers that did the other sequels. I do give them credit for not using the Eric and Shelly characters because people are very affectionate towards Brandon and protective as well.”
Now, within the press release above and within the very sentence where they mention O’Barr, it’s stated that “The Crow adaptation will be a reboot of the iconic cult character Eric Draven [emphasis added], who’s resurrected as The Crow to avenge his wife’s murder so he can reunite with her in the hereafter, as first envisioned by graphic novelist James O’Barr.” They have obviously decided on a new/old direction for the reboot and are going to go right for Brandon Lee‘s legacy.
Here’s what O’Barr told us about The Crow being Brandon’s film and Eric Draven being Brandon’s character on the big-screen:
“It’s Brandon’s achievement… the only film he ever made that he wasn’t in his father’s shadow.”
At this point, I would honestly pay Relativity to NOT make this reboot. If they’d like to win friends and influence people, they would cancel this reboot and turn the film rights to The Crow back over to James O’Barr. I think any true fan of The Crow would go see everything Relativity ever put out from that point on, just to support a company who respected a character’s fans, creator and the legacy of a young actor who left this planet way too young.
If you would rather support our friend James O’Barr and the real legacy of The Crow, hit the link below to pre-order a brand new copy of The Crow: Special Edition. Last April we brought you an Exclusive sneak peak at the special edition that contains around thirty-eight pages of additional artwork that augments the story.
The pre-order listing is so new that they don’t even have the cover image on 
Amazon yet… but we do. Check it out!
[AMAZONPRODUCT=1451627254]
The Crow is slated to hit theaters in 2011.
