While we’re often pretty down on remakes here it’s interesting to see that comic creator James O’Barr is not only for the remake of ‘The Crow‘ but that he is excited for it.

While the 1994 Brandon Lee original film has a long history due to Lee’s tragic death (and to this day still has a solid fan base), what O’Barr is looking forward to in the new film is for things to be very different. When it all was initially pitched, O’Barr said that “No one was more against a remake than I was. Brandon Lee was a friend, and I’d never do anything to hurt his legacy.”

So how did director F. Javier Gutierrez end up changing O’Barr’s mind? According to O’Barr:

“He told me ‘I don’t want to remake that film, that film is perfect as it is. I want to do your book, literally page-for-page adaptation.’ That’s what changed by mind, that it’s not a remake of the original film, or cashing in on the cult status of Brandon Lee, it’s that Guiterrez wants to go back to the source material, which if you’ve read the book and seen the film, while the movie has the right feel and the right flavor of the book, probably only 40% of the book made it into the movie. That got me intrigued – the idea of adapting it from page 1 and going from there, including a lot of the darker or stranger elements of the comic dropped from the original film.”

So taking all that into perspective, “remake” isn’t exactly the proper word to use for this film. O’Barr continued to explain:

“We’re not remaking the movie, we’re readapting the book. My metaphor is that there is a Bela Lugosi Dracula and there’s a Francis Ford Coppola Dracula, they use the same material, but you still got two entirely different films. This one’s going to be closer to Taxi Driver or a John Woo film, and I think there’s room for both of them – part of the appeal of the Crow comics after all is that they can tell very different stories after all.”

Also a faithful adaptation means that this won’t be treading on Brandon Lee’s memory as the character will be portrayed quite differently. “I’d also remind them that Eric Draven was a creation of the movie – if you read the comic, Eric and Shelley never have their last names revealed. Hopefully, this is one area the new movie being more faithful to the comic will come into play, and Eric won’t be going by Eric Draven in the new film. Luke Evans may play Eric, but Brandon Lee will forever be Eric Draven.”

So how did O’Barr end up being directly involved with the film?

“So after this, Javier, Luke and I went to the studio and said we won’t do this unless all three of us do it together. I said if you want me involved, this is what I need, I want control of the soundtrack, like with the first one, I want a voice on all the casting, and I want to be able to give my two cents on the script and the characters, and they agreed to everything.”

Wanting to be a part of the music you have to wonder what to expect from the film as the first really did have an iconic soundtrack.

While the original take on ‘The Crow’ will hold a place in many of our hearts, the graphic novel is still one that is ripe for interpretation because, as the original creator himself points out, there was a lot of it that wasn’t included in the film.

Are you looking forward to a new take on ‘The Crow’? Are you willing to give it a shot even with the original creator’s blessing or is Brandon Lee’s take in the role the only one you care about?

source: Slash Film