A Boy and His Bird News 2004
December 24th, 2004
Christmas Wishes To You
Another year and another Christmas bringing you Crow news and information. Look for our annual year-end article next week. In the meantime, here is a photo and message from Robert Zuckerman that says it all.......
Take care and God bless......
December 17th, 2004
Various Crow Tidbits
KoraXdawn over at the ChambeRoom alerted us to some interesting items today. The first is some new Eric art drawn by James O'Barr that has shown up in a gothic comic called “Deady” the bear. It is about an evil teddy bear (no, not kidding) that goes on adventures. The comic was created by a man who goes by the name of Voltaire. The first issue of the “Deady” comic features some lampooning of Clive Barker. Korax reports the concept of the story is sort of in line with Vasques, so depending on your opinion of Vasques; this may be something you might want to check out. The O'Barr connection in all this is that in the second edition of “Deady”, Dan Brereton (Nocturnals/Giant Killer) and James O'Barr are listed as collaborators. Inside the issue are 4 new Eric renditions/pages, which Korax report as being “pretty decent in terms of quality”. The whole concept/storyline of this issue has “Deady” stealing Gabrielle from Eric and he (Eric) assuming it is some girls from Hot Topic that stole the cat. This is a rather humorous stance being taken by James in that he is seemingly making a statement aimed at Hot Topic and all the merchandising of the Eric Draven character. Here is a link to one of the pages .
KoraX also alerted us to something we reported back a few months ago but is worth mentioning again. There is a third issuing of the trade paperback of Alexander Maleeve's Crow comic “Flesh & Blood”, originally released by Kitchen Sink Press. It is a mini-version of the comic. For those that don't remember, this is the only female led Crow story that appeared in KSP comics. It follows the story of Iris Shaw (see our comic section for a full description of the comic and our thoughts on it). Here is a link to a site where you can order the comic.
Big thanks to KoraX for posting this information at the ChambeRoom.
Take care……
December 9th, 2004
CrowFans Email Available Again
We have received many inquiries about the CrowFans email service. Many thought we ran it, which is not the case. We do good just to keep up with our own little ABaHB world :) Frank has resurrected the CrowFans email and you can now find it at a new
address:
http://crowfans.mail.everyone.net/email/scripts/loginuser.pl
I know this will make many folks happy and thanks to Frank for responding quickly to getting it back into service.
Take care.....
December 4th, 2004
HollywoodNews Reporter Says February for Wicked Prayer Matt Reynolds passed along this news item from HollywoodNews.
It basically reports on the news that Wicked Prayer is going direct to video. However, they also mention that Wicked Prayer, as well as the next Hellraiser title are coming out in February. We caution everyone to take this report with a grain of salt. We are not
positive where HollywoodNews got the date, but we shall see. It would be nice if February is the date. We will continue to monitor the net and will press our contacts for any kind of confirmation, if one can be given.
Thanks for the url Matt.
Take care....
December 3rd, 2004
LLcruize responds to direct to video news
Today we have an excerpt of Miramax's announcement from their anniversary magazine that speaks to what we reported yesterday in regard to why a film such as Wicked Prayer is going direct to video. Huge thanks to our friend Gabi who had this scanned. The part that speaks specifically to Wicked Payer can be found on the right side of the page under the heading "Embracing the disc brings rewards". This piece of the article goes into how DVD premiere movies (direct to video) have become a very profitable market for Miramax. For this reason, Wicked Prayer has been slated as a DVD premiere for Miramax/Dimension. The previous Crow movie Salvation proved to be very profitable for Miramax when it was released direct to video. Fan expectations should be that all Crow movies will follow this direct to video approach (until folks stop buying the disks). If all goes well and Wicked Prayer is as successful as Salvation, we will see a 5th Crow film. Of course that is looking down the road. For now, we are anxiously awaiting word of a U.S. distributing partner for the Crow franchise. As soon as that happens, we should get an official date of when Wicked Prayer will hit stores.
Take care.....
December 2nd, 2004
LLcruize responds to direct to video news
The report in Variety that THE CROW: WICKED PRAYER will officially be a direct to video release in the U.S. should not come as much of a surprise to ABaHB visitors. We have from day 1 cautioned everyone to take any reports, theatrical or direct to video, with a grain of salt until an official release was issued. Personally, I knew the film would be a direct to video title, but you always like to keep that door open because you just never know. A white knight might come through and save the day. In this case, the white knight rode in a different direction.
I did want to make sure you understand that this decision to distribute THE CROW: WICKED PRAYER direct to video was NOT made due to the film being deemed
inferior by Miramax/Dimension as has been insinuated by Bloody-Disgusting.
Today there is a very large market for direct to video titles. Franchises such as The Crow have a hardcore, but limited number fan base. This combination is perfect for a distributor like Dimension to make quick money with direct to video releases. Take the last Crow release THE CROW: SALVATION for instance. It was the number 1 selling direct to video action release of 2000. The Crow is a viable direct to video money
maker, a lot more than it is a theatrical franchise. Miramax/Dimension has had widely reported financial problems this year. They had to layoff employees this summer. And recently, they started shopping around their franchise titles such as THE CROW, looking for help or possible buyout of the distribution. Do you think a company this strapped for money is going to spend millions on a theatrical release for a franchise
like The Crow that has proven it is a bigger profit maker through direct to video release? The answer is a big fat NO. Quality was not the decision maker here my
friends, simple and basic economics was.
I have seen the 5 minute trailer for this film and every second of those 5 minutes were fantastic. I have read all versions of the script and can say without a doubt it is the best script since the first film. I have been in contact with the production from day 1 up
until today and have all the confidence that they have done a fantastic job and it will be proven with the video release of the film next year.
Take care.....LLcruize
December 1st, 2004
Wicked Prayer Stright to Video
From Variety, this report from Bloody Disgusting says it all:
Dimension's 'Crow: Wicked Prayer' Flying DTV
After exchanging soft blows with an actress in the film and warding off rumors from other websites regarding the release of Dimension Films' it looks like we were right on the money. In a special DVD holiday issue of Variety, Dimension announced the next 'Crow' film as one of their direct-to-video DVDs for 2005, alongside Hellrasier: Hellworld/Deader and The Prophecy sequels. I guess the reports are true- the film is terrible, but you'll be able to judge for yourself sometime in 2005. Lance Munjia's film stars Edward Furlong, Tara Reid, David Borianaz, Dennis Hopper, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Marcus Chong, Tito Ortiz, Rena Owen, Danny Trejo and Macy Gray.
More to come...
