The Crow Almost Had a Perfect Sequel, but It Was Ruined by Studio & Got 14% on RT

The original 1994 film, The Crow, grossed over $50 million at the domestic box office (on a budget of $23 million), a great result for an R-rated comic book movie, so a sequel was inevitable.

The creator of the original comic, James O'Barr, wanted to protect the memory of his friend Brandon Lee, who died on the set, from exploitation, so he proposed an original idea to Miramax.

A potential sequel, titled The Bride, would tell the story of a woman who rises from the dead to take revenge on criminals who killed all the guests and the groom at her wedding. The studio rejected the concept, and James stopped participating in the further fate of the franchise.

The Crow: City of Angels Had a Promising Concept

The creators of the movie that was later titled The Crow: City of Angels did not really want to copy the previous film. Director Tim Pope and then little known screenwriter David S. Goyer (who would later write Blade and The Dark Knight) tried to reinvent the concept of The Crow.

The main character was not a young man avenging his beloved, but a father losing his son, meaning that the grief at the center of the plot was of a different order. The aesthetic of the movie also changed radically. Artist Alex McDowell, who worked on the original The Crow, created an eerie alternative Los Angeles, shrouded in yellow fog.

French actor Vincent Perez, who played the lead role, portrayed a more tragic, desperate man than Eric Draven. The main character, Ashe Corven, faced not just a gang of ordinary gangsters, but rocker killers. They were led by drug lord Judah, who had once literally been to hell after experiencing clinical death.

Also, Ashe fell in love with Sarah, the grown-up girl from the first part, but lost her in the finale and went on an eternal wandering through the dark streets.

City of Angels Was Changed a Lot by Harvey Weinstein

If City of Angels had made it to the screen in its original form, fans would probably have recognized it as a worthy successor to Alex Proyas' film. However, infamous producer Harvey Weinstein ordered most of the dialogue cut and action added.

As a result, the original 160-minute running time was cut almost in half, and an 84-minute version was released, with many scenes, including the finale, reshot. The director and screenwriter disowned the result.

City of Angels started out well, but after a week the box office began to plummet, and the film eventually grossed just over $25 million. Critics and viewers saw it just as a lazy rip-off of the cult film – its current rating on Rotten Tomatoes is only 14%.

The full-length story of the franchise ended, and it will only be resurrected on August 23rd with the release of a new movie adaptation starring Bill Skarsgard.