The Crow is the original anti-superhero. His story is about tragic loss, about dealing with the pain of everything that comes with losing someone you love, something that all of us have or will encounter at some point in our lives. It is about the dark shadow of grief, about what we would do when something so meaningful is taken from us.
The original graphic novel is deeply meaningful for so many, and the character, his journey and his need for revenge has inspired a canon of films for the last three decades. Our version goes back to that graphic novel by James O’Barr, who I had the honour of meeting shortly before production, and explores the love story as the primary drive for our film.
What Alex Proyas did with the Crow in 1994—and Brandon Lee’s iconic embodiment of that character—will forever impact that generation and others to follow. It was a culture-defining film that is beloved to this day and has inspired many other iterations both inside and outside the Crow Universe.
That film sparked a fire with the youth of that day, a youth who grew up on hard, alternative rock, punk and metal, that binged on MTV and zines. It held a mirror to that generation in the aesthetic of the film, its smoky, rain-drenched streets, stylized and subverted sets, its leather-clad hero and chain wielding villains. It expressed its time in a very specific, music-driven vision, that spoke to a young audience who had never been spoken to in that way. It became a cult classic.
Our interpretation of James’ work also reflects this young generation, whose tastes and references have changed so dramatically from the original film. Hopefully it speaks to them in their language, with their style and music and hopefully will get them to discover Alex Proyas’ film and James O’Barr’s graphic novel, bringing a new audience to the source material.
For this story is as universal as an epic poem or Greek myth, it deals with the very primal, naturalistic emotions of love, grief and rage and it also deals with the supernatural and physiological imaginings of heaven and hell, the dead and the undead. It explores the great positive force of love and the great negative force of rage and hate that stands in its shadow, it asks what would we do, but also what would we have become by doing so. When Eric slumps to the floor, covered in the blood of the slain, we look deep into his eyes and he asks us…why?
I am very pleased to have worked with two young actors whose performances are the backbone of this film. Bill Skarsgård is so committed and vulnerable, monstrously violent and delicately tender, he brings so many layers to the complex emotion of a man consumed with so much love and hate, but also a man who will do anything for the woman he loves. He fights, numb with pain and grief, killing and maiming for the one he loves…but to what end? FKA twigs brings the same unique and wondrous talent that she does to her entire volume of work and her performance and the vacuum created by her absence undoubtedly gives reason for this Crow to be born.