Friday, January 10, 2014

The Crow Redux: Luke Evans Speaks

Welsh actor Luke Evans stars in the lead role of Eric Draven in the-long in development reboot of The Crow.

Evans was the original choice for the role but scheduling issues kept him from being able to take the job. Thus The Avengers and Thor baddie Tom Hiddleston expressed interest in the part by even going so far as to send video of a makeup test that he did on his own in London to the production. Alexander Skarsgård was also recently rumored in contention for the role. Evans has begun an intense training schedule for the film.

"The Walking Dead" star Norman Reedus would play the role of 'James' No other details have been given regarding the character. role. Kristen Stewart was eyed for the role of 'Shelley,' at one time but producers have decided to move on.

Production was  rescheduled to start in early 2014 to accommodate Evans busy work load--which includes the title role in the "Dracula" reboot at Universal Pictures.

Writer Jesse Wigutow was hired to pen the latest script--starting from scratch from which F. Javier Gutierrez ("Before the Fall") will helm.

Ed Pressman, Jeff Most, Ryan Kavanaugh, Enrique López Lavigne and Belén Atienza will produce the film.

James O'Barr's Gothic comic book series and the 1994 film from Alex Proyas-which became more known for the on set death of its star Brandon Lee, follows rock musician Eric Draven who is murdered while trying to save his fiancee from thugs. He is resurrected by supernatural forces and seeks revenge. That film spawned three sequels, The Crow: City of Angels, The Crow: Salvation, and The Crow: Wicked Prayer, as well as a short-lived TV series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven starring Mark Dacascos.

Director Stephen Norrington was slated to helm the reboot at first from a script by Nick Cave At that point Mark Wahlberg was rumoured to be interested in taking the lead role. Both Norrington and Cave left, replaced by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and Alex Tse respectively.

Actor Bradley Cooper actually signed on to play the title character. Then Cooper left due to scheduling conflicts with the now defunct "Paradise Lost" and Oscar contender The Silver Linings Playbook Wahlberg was linked a 2nd time but had 2 Guns and Broken City in his sights; Channing Tatum (who seems all wrong for the role IMHO) was also mentioned at one point recently and then came the legal tussel. In February of this year James McAvoy ("Atonement," "X-Men: First Class") was rumored to be circling the lead--a notion that the actor denied.


Deep in pre-production with filming to begin shortly, Evans spoke with RCN TV recently about what the team hopes to accomplish with this reset:

"Well, we just want to be as authentic and loyal to the original comic as possible, and that means the story will be different. It’ll be different from what people are expecting. It’s not about us ripping off the Brandon Lee movie, that stands alone as a brilliant piece of cult film and a great performance, but we’re going back to the book, the original book. And that’s exciting because we’re bringing to the screen a lot of parts of the story that were never really told. So yeah, it’s our chance to do it, to do it differently, but to be as loyal and respectful of the original storyline as we possibly can."

Evans adds that while he's preparing for the role physically at the moment, he hasn't thought much about wearing the character's iconic make-up and outfit yet.

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