James O’Barr discusses The Crow reboot

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Feelings have been quite mixed when it comes to Relativity Media's upcoming reboot of comic creator James O'Barr's THE CROW, but one person who thinks things are certainly headed in the right direction is O'Barr himself, who recently chatted with Total Film about the project.

You may remember that Luke Evans was announced in May as the man who would be tackling the iconic role of Eric Draven (played by Brandon Lee in the 1994 original) for the reboot. While many of us can agree that the casting of Evans may be a good sign, the idea of rebooting THE CROW has had many fans voicing their concerns. THE CROW creator James O'Barr assures us that we have nothing to worry about, and his involvement alone should alleviate a lot of fears about the new film.

O’Barr admits he was persuaded to jump on board by the film’s Spanish director, F. Javier Gutiérrez, making his English-language debut following 2008’s acclaimed BEFORE THE FALL, stating…

“It was his idea to go right back to the source material and essentially shoot it shot-for-shot, as in the book, but with a little more backstory for some of the characters.

“He wants to be as faithful as possible, even down to all the visual metaphors of trains and horses.”

Sounds as if Gutierrez is very concerned with getting the story and tone correct, which should make fans feel somewhat better. It sounds as if it is in capable hands.

And what says O'Barr of the casting of Luke Evans as Eric Draven?

“The producers showed me some shots of [Luke Evans] in the make-up and the tragedy really shows on his face, especially his eyes. He has a really commanding screen presence.”

THE CROW is scheduled to enter production in early 2014 with Ed Pressman, Kevin Misher, Relativity’s CEO Ryan Kavanaugh and Jeff Most producing. We'll keep you posted on news regarding the film as we hear it.