Movies
UPDATED: Lawsuit Stops ‘Crow’ Remake From Taking Flight?
As if the franchise wasn’t already tainted with the untimely death of an actor and the lingering stench of Edward Furlong’s post-American History X career desperation, it now appears that Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s remake of The Crow might not be soaring onto screens anytime soon.
The Weinstein Company is bringing Relativity Media to court over a distribution dispute, claiming that they have “a written contract signed by everybody” that gives the Weinsteins worldwide rights to the film (they distributed the original through Miramax in 1994). Their side of the story is that Relativity head honcho Ryan Kavanaugh is shopping around rights to other parties, though Kavanaugh has yet to respond as of this writing.
I’d like to think that the two companies can work it out, though we’re talking about two mega-producers with inflated egos that are no strangers to lawsuits. With a director and potential star in place, this is the perfect time for the Weinsteins to step in and raise hell; they just want a piece of the pie. Relativity has had way too much momentum as of late to let this project go by the wayside. Of course, stranger things have happened.
As of now, The Crow is still scheduled to shoot in the fall for a 2012 release.
UPDATED
Relativity has responded to the Weinsteins and their rep, Bert Fields, claiming that 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.” Kavanaugh and Co. plan on seeking a dismissal if served, dismissing the claim as a “feeble attempt to create a press stir and a malicious effort to interfere with Relativity’s development of the project.”
The rebuttal at least addresses the real issue at hand. The Weinsteins technically can’t stop Relativity from making the film, but if they cause enough of a stink with this distribution mess, people might back out because they don’t want to be associated with it.
We’ll see how long this gets dragged out for.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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