Stephen Norrington emotionally ran himself out of Hollywood after directing the embarasing League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which also marked the end of Sean Connery’s film career too. He returned to his own writing and artwork, and nearly came back to direct a remake of Clash of the Titans, but then backed out.
So the latest piece of cheese to lure out the mouse has been his own take on the gothic antihero The Crow.
Norrington resolved to focus on independent projects, and sparked to an approach on The Crow from Relativity production chief Tucker Tooley and Pressman. Norrington had a relationship with Pressman when they came close to making The Mutant Chronicles several years ago. Both embraced Norrington’s vision of the antihero, which Norrington said will be different than the film Proyas made.
“Whereas Proyas’ original was gloriously gothic and stylized, the new movie will be realistic, hard-edged and mysterious, almost documentary-style,” Norrington said.
I have to say I liked Norrington’s take on Blade, and though I felt the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was nothing like the book (only shared the name and characters) which was a noble effort, but missed the mark.
Now that he is taking on the Crow, I don’t know how I feel yet. The “documentary style” comment distracts me because I cant picture how it would work just yet. I loved the first Crow movie, I just don’t think it would need a reboot.
Not that I think a reboot would be bad, just not really appropriate with this franchise. The spirit of vengence that brings wrongly murdered souls back to seek justice serves a different person in every movie. If he wanted to do a movie with a little different take on the spirit of the Crow, I don’t see how it would require a reboot. Each sequel is kind of a reboot anyways.
