The Crow (franchise)

The Crow is an American media franchise based on the limited comic book series of the same name created by James O'Barr. Since then, there have been five released films and a television series, as well as a video game.

In the 90s, James O'Barr wanted to pursue a female-led installment of The Crow called The Crow: The Bride which would've followed a woman killed on her wedding day who would return seeking revenge.^[1] O'Barr had been inspired by a news story he'd read in which Chicago gangsters robbing a church ended up at a wedding where a shoot out occurred with one of the guests who was an off-duty cop and 13 people were killed.^[1] When O'Barr pitched the concept to Miramax it was rejected as they didn't believe audiences would pay to see an action film with a female lead.^[1]

Initial development on a third Crow film was announced in August 1997, when Rob Zombie was attached to make a directorial debut with The Crow: 2037.^[2] White Zombie covered the KC and the Sunshine Band hit "I'm Your Boogie Man" for the soundtrack of The Crow: City of Angels, and after seeing Rob Zombie's work on the video he produced for the song, Edward Pressman offered Zombie the opportunity to helm the third Crow film.^[2] Had the film been made, Zombie planned to shift focus in tone from the revenge angle of the previous two entries, to a more horror based approach. The film would've began in 2010, when a young boy and his mother are murdered on Halloween night by a Satanic priest. A year later, the boy is resurrected as the Crow. Twenty-seven years later, and unaware of his past, he has become a bounty hunter on a collision course with his now all-powerful killer.^[2] While producers responded favorably to Zombie's proposal for a third "The Crow" film, producers Pressman and Most ultimately decided it wasn't the best fit for a Crow film and was better served as a standalone work.^[3] Zombie himself spoke of his frustration with experience after spending 18 months working on the film often dealing with the indecisiveness of the producers who according to him would change their mind as to what they wanted on any given day which ultimately lead to Zombie leaving the project.^[4]

In July 2000, rapper DMX had been in discussions with producers about a fourth Crow film titled The Crow: Lazarus about a rapper who chooses to leave the music scene for the love of a woman and is killed during a drive-by shooting. The rapper is then reincarnated as The Crow in order to take revenge on the gang responsible for his death.^[5] Production had been slated to begin in November of that year, but the project ultimately never came to be.^[6]