The Kidd here...

It has been a tough road for Relativity to bring THE CROW back to the big screen, aiming to reboot the character and the franchise a little closer to the comics than to the original film (let's just pretend those sequels starring Vincent Perez, Eric Mabius and Edward Furlong didn't happen). Stephen Norrington was really championing the cause for quite awhile, until he ultimately dropped off the project, before Juan Carlos Fresnadillo picked up the chance to direct, later to move on himself to other projects. F. Javier Gutierrez looks to be locked in for the gig for the time being at least, but his vision of the film has remained without a lead. Mark Wahlberg was in serious talks at one point, only for that deal to collapse, and then Bradley Cooper was a severe possibility to don the Crow make-up for a bit until he wasn't. But Bloody Disgusting may have gotten info on who Relativity is trying to get to take on this titular role, with the intel coming from the same source who has the Wahlberg knowledge.

James McAvoy would step into the role of Eric Draven, a man brutally murdered along with his fiancee who comes back from the dead seeking vengeance. 

Now I've long been a fan of McAvoy's work, and find him to be an interesting choice for the role - much better than Cooper - but there is one problem that is inherently going to reside with whoever gets cast as the lead this time out: they will never be the late Brandon Lee.

It sucks, but it's the reality of the situation. Brandon Lee absolutely embodied that role, and, had it not been for the unfortunate accident on the set of that film, which took his life, who knows where his career might have taken off to, as his take on Eric Draven was his launching pad. There's a reason the other three CROW flicks never quite found an audience. They weren't fronted by Lee.

I'd be very curious to see how this gets built around McAvoy, but the beauty of Lee was that he really didn't have much baggage heading into the role. He had done a few smaller roles that most weren't familiar with, and his namesake was really how people knew who he was. McAvoy has Professor X  and WANTED already associated with him. Are people going to be able to separate Charles Xavier from this role? If so, we may be onto something here. If not, THE CROW is already D.O.A.

-Billy Donnelly

"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"

BillyTheKidd@aintitcool.com

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