Nick Cave Rewrites The Crow, Cillian Murphy to Star?
Nick Cave’s participation in the remake of the new Crow has been confirmed, and I’m finally starting to get excited. The Crow, a film based on James O’Barr’s eponymous comic book series, was a sort of holy grail to me and my darque little crew back in the early nineties. Unapologetically dramatic, The Crow had everything an angsty kid could want: love, destruction, hot bloke in makeup, great villains, pretty girls. There was one year when I watched the film at least five times.
Now, I haven’t actually seen it in over ten years, for fear that it won’t hold up. I’m told it doesn’t. Still, the concept of a shiny new remake of my childhood/adolescence favorite is an uncomfortable one. Nostalgia and Brandon Lee’s death on the set veil The Crow in shimmery, inviolate mystery, and, had it been anyone other than Nick The Stripper doing the re-write, I would have probably shunned it. As things stand though, I think there’s reason to get at least a little fired up, especially with new rumors of Cillian Murphy possibly signing on to play Eric – almost as weird as casting Brandon Lee! If only Stephen Norrington could be replaced… Yes, then I can almost picture it. Until we know more, let us remember The Crow that once was. I leave you with a question: who would you cast as the ideal Eric?
The Crow is available on YouTube in its entirety.
July 29th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Heath Ledger, but oh wait…he’s dead. damnit. I think Cillian Murphy has the cheekbones for it, certainly, as long as he can do it without looking *too* adorable.
July 29th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
James McAvoy.
But Cillian Murphy is a good choice.
July 29th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
I think Cillian is an inspired choice; he evokes the androgynous look of the comic character well. The book is still better than the movie but a nice hybrid focusing more on emotion than violence would be nice
July 29th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
I still love the film, the jaded be damned. The book is a comics milestone for me. LOATHED all that came after. Cave is an exciting turn. Cillian can play anyone in anything. Loved Norrington’s Blade (again, the too cool school kids can kiss it), but his other films…ick, not so much. Part of the major draw of the initial film was it’s stark gothic design and execution. Although, after the horrendous NoES remake, not sure I wanna see a director try to duplicate the first film’s vibe.
July 29th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
I think the film holds up actually. Visually it still has some striking shots. Budget & tech limitations of the era aside – many scenes keep their potency if a bit more heightened and cartoonish than one may remember. Still that’s more to do with the era it was made than any weakness in the direction, acting, or cast.
If anything it’s amazing how underrated the film really is for setting the stage of the modern comic book film & in many cases action films to follow in the states. The shootout still holds up as great bit of flash & fury.
As others have noted – what’s really hurt the film is not age but the abysmal sequels even if City of Angels was visually quite solid. Everything else became cheap parody.
My choice for a new Crow – I’d go for more of an aged version actually. The young & beautiful some would pick now lack that Angel of Death quality that Brandon Lee pulled off brilliantly. Many forget it was his subtly not his force that carried the roll. He didn’t LOOK like he should be that “creature” yet totally became it in ways on a handful of actors ever pull off with such a role.
My casting choice? Find an actor who can play the character BEFORE they are dead & want vengeance. It’s really only then that ANYTHING else will have weight. This is a role for a newcomer in the sense of someone who has not had the chance to prove himself.
Though the sadist in me would pick Zac Efron just to see an actor like that kill away his Disney image & utterly destroy the hearts & minds of his many under 21 fans :P (though no doubt he’d regain that same contingent of fans from the non-Disney weened spectrum.) Think of how Kurt Russell went from that same sort of background and later became Snake Plissken :D
Sadism aside I pick Anton Yelchin who in Charlie Bartlett showed surprising charisma and way more range than I thought he had. I could see him going from a life well loved to one ripped apart with a believable intensity others would only look good in vs. actually show the horror of.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
I think Cillian is an interesting and potentially amazing choice.
July 29th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
The First 100 Crow Films, featuring such gems as;
-The Crow 23: My Guitar Solo Just Became Sentient And It, Too, Wept
-The Crow 45: The Desolation Of The Loneliest Isolation
-The Crow 54: The Gigantic Jewel Heist Caper
-The Crow 63: What The Fuck, You Killed My Girlfriend – The Second I Stop Mourning You Are So Dead
July 29th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
HA! Foxtongue, that’s lollerific, thanks!
Tequila, huh! Anton! You know, I do see bits of both Murphy and Ledger in him. Could be interesting.
July 29th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
Hmm. Not sure how I feel about this either.
I do love the original, and the comic.
Can’t count the number of times I’ve seen it.
But it really is up Nick Cave’s alley, in a way that few stories could be.
I’m shite with actors, so you get no suggestions from me. :-P
July 29th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
“Now, I haven’t actually seen it in over ten years, for fear that it won’t hold up. I’m told it doesn’t.”
Who tells these lies? I watched it and I felt 17 again in the best way possible. I am very different from 17 year old me and I was just as enchanted, maybe more. We just got a VHS player from my housemates dad and we’ve been watching that and ST: The Voyage home a lot (well I have.)
Cillian is so beautiful, odd and soulful. He’s the only name I could bare in the role now that I hear this rumer. Most of young Hollywood just doesn’t seem to fit it. Brandon wasn’t a big name, Cillian aside, maybe it shouldn’t be a big name. Oh beautiful Brandon. :( Maybe a musician? Brian Molko. I kid! (Mostly…)
More important than who will play Eric, who could possibly replace Ernie Hudson? I loved his cop as much as I loved Eric.
July 29th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
Johnathan Rhys Meyers, Gael Garcia Bernal would fit, IMHO. But if they went in the more Tom Waits, Nick Cave vitriolic, vulgar, serious tough-as-nails/ spit-and-piss direction I hope they’re going (to make it, y’know, DIFFERENT somehow), then I’d like to see a more masculine lead, or somebody who could pull off masculine. Say… Guy Pearce?
July 30th, 2010 at 12:33 am
I am cautiously optimistic…and disappointed at the same time. I do NOT want to see a remake. Why does it need to be remade? Why not just do a NEW Crow movie that’s actually good?
That said, Cillian was very good in The Wind that Shakes the Barley, certainly not to cute there, so he could do it. Norrington does make me cringe a bit, I think he should stick to effects, he’s done amazing work there. Blade was cool but Ex. Gents. was so disappointing.
Even with Nick Cave confirmed, I would still so much rather them do a new movie.
July 30th, 2010 at 1:57 am
Cillian Murphy can play anything…so I also think he is a good candidate, tho it’s going to be ashamed not to see that gorgeous face of his because it’ll be covered in thick make up
July 30th, 2010 at 4:30 am
Oh, this is one of my all time favourite movies. I loved the comic, loved Brandon Lee.. just.. everything.
I need to watch this again.
And I think Cillian Murphy would be a really interesting choice- I may be the only one, but his eyes, as beautiful as they are, kind of scare me. :D
July 30th, 2010 at 9:06 am
I love reading forums where the participants aren’t going back and forth bashing each others’ idea into a concrete pilon. This makes it fun to join in, I commend everyone on here for being humans. I’d like to see Cillian Murphy, or Sam Witwer. Those two are just from the top of my head, I’m sure later tonight I’ll think of another one and scramble back here.
July 30th, 2010 at 9:57 am
Does the Crow still hold up? I’m 35 years old now, 16 years have passed since I watched it so long ago. I recently watched it about a week ago with my niece who kept asking me what it was about. It still blew me away. It blew her away. She begged me to buy her the dvd. Chills ran down my spine and goosebumps on my arms when The Cure kicked in, Machines of Loving Grace, Medicine, TKK, STP, and even the films music score itself still holds up. The music, the acting, the romance…all is timeless in this movie.
I myself look forward to this new remake. I want to see if I can connect with the new characters. If I can FEEL their pain and sorrow. I want to feel the love loss like with the original film. The bitter sweet emotional end when Shelley comes to comfort Eric back into death. Thinking that love endures even in the afterlife all the while I find myself trying to hold back the tears. I want to see if this new movie does the same for me.
So, does it hold up? For me, it still does. Even more so now. Do I want to see the remake? Hell yeah! I have high hopes for this. As for the comic, that’s another story =D
July 30th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
I saw the film on release at age of 24. 15 years later in the really real I bought it on Blu-Ray. It’s still good.
The question for the remake should who will play the villians. Michael Wincott will be hard to top.
August 1st, 2010 at 9:54 pm
I think Stuart Townsend would make an excellent Eric Draven. He’s a really decent actor… too bad his career never took off.
Or, obviously, Jeff Goldblum. Any movie + Jeff Goldblum = better than without.
November 28th, 2011 at 11:16 am
Really, does there really need to be a Crow remake? Does there need to be a remake of Blade Runner? Does there need to be a remake of ANY classic well-received film?
Remakes can be stellar. The Humphrey Bogart “Maltese Falcon” was a remake. But the only reason to do a remake is to make better what was flawed before.
If the film has no flaws, or the audience loved it as if was originally, why bother? (Oh, right: I forgot that exploiting a good film’s reputation in order to make a bundle of cash is another reason to do a remake.)