The Crow Remake Grounded Before Taking Flight
Posted 04.21.11 by Ryan
The remake of The Crow has been gaining steam this month, starting when director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) was hired to helm the remake earlier this month. Less than a week later, Bradley Cooper was reportedly in early negotiations for the lead role of Eric Draven, the rock musician character from James O'Barr's comic book, who is resurrected by supernatural forces to take revenge on those responsible for murdering his fiancée. However, despite the progress made on the remake, a lawsuit could stall the project which was planned to start production this fall.
Deadline reports that The Weinstein Company has slapped an injunction against the remake stating that their company — and not Relativity Media, who are producing the remake — own the worldwide distribution rights to The Crow. The original, 1994 adaptation was released by The Weinstein Company's Harvey and Bob Weinstein when the siblings worked at Miramax.
Lawyer Bert Fields explained the reason for the legal action stemmed from a distribution contract "signed by everybody" that the Weinsteins feel is not being honored.
[Relativity's] Mr. [Ryan] Kavanaugh was not going to honor that contract. Apparently, he's going to sell these rights to others. He made a bunch of threats. Some people may submit to that kind of arrogant conduct, but we're not going to do it. If anybody tries to buy these distribution rights in The Crow, they are buying nothing but a lawsuit and they will get sued.
Relativity was not pleased with Fields' comments and offered their response through a statement:
This is yet another typical litigation stunt from the Weinsteins who have a long history of threatening law suits with the sole purpose of intimidation. If served, Relativity will seek immediate dismissal. While we expect these types of antics from the Weinsteins, we are shocked that a lawyer of Mr. Fields' caliber would make such false, reckless and intentionally harmful statements to the press about Relativity and Mr. Kavanaugh. We intend to seek appropriate remedies for this misconduct. Clearly this is a feeble attempt to create a press stir and a malicious effort to interfere with Relativity's development of the project.
What this legal wrangling means to the rest of us is that The Crow is likely grounded until the matter is settled.