Stephen Norrington (Blade) signed on as both a writer and director for the planned remake of Alex Proyas’ (I, Robot) 1994 cult hit; The Crow; and had written a script that was described by all those involved as being “terrific”, before another writer (The Proposition’s Nick Cave) was hired to give it a once over, and the project drifted away, forcing him to leave the film.
Norrington stated that his script was “a genuinely authentic take, that respected the source material” (James O’Barr’s comic-book series of the same name), and “moved beyond it”, meaning that “the fans would have been pleasantly surprised” had it ever made it to film; particularly as he believes “Nick Cave came in and added even more depth” to it.
However Stephen’s version of The Crow (which was set to have an extremely different visual style to the 1994 original) won’t be making it to the screen, as an unnamed star was cast in the lead role sometime back (after being initially attracted by Norrington’s plans to take the film in a new direction, both visually, and thematically), but was reportedly so unhappy with the script that he demanded it be scrapped, and started again; and as Norrington says he “got involved explicitly as a writer/director” it meant “my exit was inevitable.”
But while it’s not known exactly which star was hired, and forced the director into leaving the project, it doesn’t appear as if it was Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter); who was rumoured only the other day, to have been offered the lead role in the film; as Norrington has said that he thinks Wahlberg is “a truthful actor” and “could really ground the supernatural stuff”; adding that “I think Wahlberg could be cool, if they take a gritty blue-collar approach.”
So while we still don’t have a lead actor confirmed at this time (only the strong rumour that Mark Wahlberg will be taking on the role that was first made famous by the late Brandon Lee), we now no longer have a confirmed director, official filming schedule, or release date; since Stephen Norrington has now left 18 months of development behind him, and is officially “bummed.”
