Now 'The Crow' Reboot May Lose Director Corin Hardy
Just last month we learned that the reboot of The Crow had hit a huge speed bump as Relativity Media had declared bankruptcy. While someone at Relativity was hoping to still push forward and move into production, an entire production team and several heads of department left the project, stalling pre-production.
Now the project is facing another problem as director Corin Hardy is on the verge of leaving the project thanks to the bankruptcy filing putting a halt on the project and creating some legal problems for the company. Find out more about Corin Hardy leaving The Crow below.
Due to the bankruptcy filing, The Wrap reports Relativity is gathering the studio assets to prepare for a sale of the company, but producer Edward R. Pressman has filed an objection to the company's inclusion of The Crow as one of their assets.
While the studio has invested $7 million in the project so far, which includes the options to acquire and maintaint he property's sequel, prequel and remake rights, Pressman doesn't think Relativity can follow through with the contractual obligation to still finance the film and release it, and therefore it shouldn't be counted among Relativity's assets when determining a sale price.
The filing estimates that in order to release the film on no less than 1,000 screens, Relativity needs somewhere between $10 million and $12 million to make that happen. And since the company just filed for bankruptcy, they're not likely to have the money to follow through on their obligations.
Pressman further says that the project is "in danger of losing the services of the director of the picture ... who is widely regarded as a key creative element. Thus, the production of the picture is imploding even as the time to make the picture is running out under the Crow contract." The rights to The Crow revert back to Pressman in 18 months if principal photography doesn't happen before that deadline arrives.
Considering the fact that The Crow currently doesn't have a star since the exit of Jack Huston left them without a lead, and now Corin Hardy may be on the way out the door, it sounds like Relativity won't be able to get The Crow off the ground at all. Pressman filed the objection because he doesn't want Relativity to have it among their assets unless they can follow through on their previous contractual agreement. Meanwhile, Relativity has turned down several studio and financing offers, believing that this is the most valuable property they have to potentially keep them afloat in the future.
No matter what happens here, this isn't good news for The Crow, and I wouldn't count on seeing a new adaptation of the graphic novel by James O'Barr anytime soon. This property has had plenty of setbacks over the years, which is surely a bummer for fans who want to see a new take on the property, but this just goes to show you how rough the movie business is right now.