The Crow’s original director does not appear to be very excited about the prospect of his movie getting remade.
In a Facebook post, Alex Proyas — who helmed the first adaptation of The Crow back in 1994 — wrote that while he doesn’t “get any joy from seeing negativity about any fellow filmmakers work” he thinks “the fan’s [negative] response [to the new film’s marketing] speaks volumes.”
“[The Crow] is not just a movie,” Proyas added. “Brandon Lee died making it, and it was finished as a testament to his lost brilliance and tragic loss. It is his legacy. That’s how it should remain.”
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Both Crow films are inspired by a graphic novel by James O’Barr. The new version stars Bill Skarsgard in the role previously played by the late Brandon Lee, a man named Eric Draven who is murdered along with his true love and then returns to the world of the living as a kind of ghostly superhero to avenge their deaths.
Lee died during the production of the original Crow film when a gun was not properly prepared for a sequence where his character was shot. The prop gun used in the scene still held a bullet in its barrel from an earlier sequence; when a blank was then inserted and fired, it ejected the stuck bullet, which hit Lee, killing him. He was only 28 years old at the time of his death.
The Crow was completed with the use of stunt doubles and special effects; after the film became a surprise hit, Proyas went on to direct Dark City, I, Robot, Knowing, and his most recent feature film, 2016’s Gods of Egypt.
In his Facebook post, Proyas did state that he’s “certain the cast and crew really had all good intentions” with their version of The Crow, regardless of his own opinion about a remake.
Here is the new film’s official synopsis:
Bill Skarsgård takes on the iconic role of THE CROW in this modern reimagining of the original graphic novel by James O’Barr. Soulmates Eric Draven (Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.
The Crow remake is scheduled to open in theaters on June 7.
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