The Crow Reboot “Definitely Will Happen,” Says Creator James O’Barr

Reports that The Crow reboot is dead amid studio money problems, according to creator James O’Barr, may have been overstated.

“It’s still very much a live property,” said O’Barr during a panel hosted by ComicBook.com at last weekend’s Twin Tiers Comic Con in Elmira, NY. “The company, Pressman Films, that owns The Crow film and TV rights, licensed it to a studio named Relativity. And Relativity made like a hundred bad movies and lost money so now they’re in financial trouble. So the producers are just going to take it to another studio if Relativity can’t get backing again. It’s going to happen. I talked to Pressman Films a couple of weeks ago and they said within two or three weeks, we should have it placed at a new studio. Because the day Relativity announced that they were having financial problems, there were like a dozen other studios that called about getting The Crow property. it definitely will happen.”

After a troubled pre-production, the long-awaited reboot of the comic book franchise had finally got moving in the spring. Rumors started in June, though, that Relativity Media would sell the rights due to ongoing financial trouble at the studio.

The film has undergone a number of setbacks, including losing a director and two lead stars during the course of pre-production. It hadn’t yet started filming, as the latest candidate to head up the film hadn’t been chosen.

The Crow was supposed to be the first shot at the new Pinewood Cardiff, and Pinewood was last reported to be awaiting word on a timetable for production to resume.

Going back as early as 2011, Relativity had production delays — then in the form of a lawsuit with The Weinstein Company over rights — which resulted in then-star Bradley Cooper dropping out. Since then, about a dozen actors, including some very big names, have been bandied about for Eric Draven. Both Luke Evans and Jack Huston signed on and then bailed.

During the panel, O’Barr also gave some details about the film itself, which he characterized as very true to the comic.

“I’m very happy with everything,” he said.

For more on The Crow and video from the panel, check back at ComicBook.com later today.