Time is so subjective – it's all about perception. We see things differently at various stages in our lives. Time stretches forever when you're a kid, and seems to speed up the older you get.

Garage Days takes place at a point when everything changes in the lives of a group of friends. Kick Gurry (who plays Freddy in the movie) said his character had yet to learn that one day he was going to die. I think the moment you realize you won't be around forever is the moment you become an adult. The characters in the movie each reach a crossroads. One signpost says: DREAMS the other direction is tagged: REALITY. It's not to say their 2 roads won't eventually re-unite but they must make a choice. Sometimes it's easy, other times it's harder, but they're searching for a way to be content with whichever it is. It should be about the journey not the destination.

I wanted to get back to a kind of film-making I missed, in an Australian setting, about an era when things were simpler. Though GD isn't a period piece it is influenced by my younger years in Sydney's inner West, in that eternally Bohemian suburb full of dreamers and nutters called Newtown. Of course that world doesn't really exist in Sydney any more – the developers have seen to that in the last decade or so. So we had to “re-create” that landscape on our limited budget, a place already in the death-throes of change. I joked about wanting to re-construct the main street of Newtown (as I remembered it) on a soundstage. I thought it would be wonderful to lavish a big Hollywood style set on something potentially so mundane. We of course couldn't afford that extravagance and so, using digital manipulation of existing exteriors, every wideshot was added to, firstly simplified to get to its core “iconic” quality, then layered with clouds, colorful buildings, signage. We turned the city into a kind of punk wonderland. Then we all wanted to live there.

As a result, the film is stylistically faithful to the old fashioned Hollywood musical – which was all about theatrical artifice - but in a contemporary way. The movie is firstly an anarchic comedy but also a strange anti-musical, in that it doesn't take the genre at all seriously. It's not an all-singing all-dancing kind of movie, though we did stage a few “numbers”, but music was integral to the emotions I was trying to recreate. I chose rock “anthems” from the last 40 years for the soundtrack. There's a Rock n Roll tradition that's more about evolution than revolution and the movie features several generations of rockers who stay true to their art through thick and thin. We see Andy Anderson's character teaching his son Joe (Brett Stiller) how to strike a suitable guitar-hero stance, then later Joe is seen teaching a group of kids the same moves. And so the flame is passed down.

We spent much time in rehearsals getting all the actors to know each other. The bonds between these people were extremely important – I wanted to have a feeling of real history there, if the audience was to accept this wonderful dysfunctional “family”. In the process we all became really good friends.

The moment I will always remember is when the cast were about to go out on stage in front of 30,000 people (a music festival in Sydney letting our little movie hog their stage for ten minutes in front of their paying crowd) to play live so I could get that authentic flavour I was after. These guys weren't musicians, they were actors who went through rock boot camp for 2 months and now they were about to play in front of a huge crowd (in front of ANY crowd) for the first time. They were scared, but I was terrified – even though I got to sit in front of my monitors and direct the show from the wings it felt like I was going out there with them.

Making this movie was a great experience, and now it's over we have the film itself to remember it with. I guess all my films are about time & change in a way. But Garage Days is specifically about what you carry forward with you. When an era is over and everything moves on, it's friends and relationships that you hopefully take with you. In that sense the old Chinese proverb is true: ALL CHANGE IS GOOD.

- Alex Proyas

Vancouver, February 2003

Fans of Mark Dacascos (Eric Draven from The Crow: Stairway to Heaven) have something to look forward to come February 28th. Mark stars opposite Jet Li and DMX in the new flick "Cradle 2 Grave". This will mark the first time Mark has played a bad guy.

The following notes come from the official Mark Dacascos site:

Mark wishes to express what a wonderful time he had working with Jet Li, who he refers to as a "total professional" and "inspirational." According to Mark, Jet truly lived up to the heroic image that Mark's always had of him. Mark also confirms that Jet is exactly as fast as we would all expect him to be. "I know... I had to fight him!"

Mark would like to extend great thanks to coaches Eric and Debbie Chen, their assistant coaches, and their National Wu-Shu Training Center for helping him prepare for his work in Cradle 2 the Grave. He would also like to thank his long-time friend and sparring partner, Sifu Earl White, for helping him get into fighting shape for this film. Mark greatly enjoyed working with fellow Hawaiian, Kelly Hu.

Mark was also honored to work with choreographer and director Cory Yuen, who recently directed The Transporter, written and produced by Luc Besson. He was also very excited and honored to work with director Andrzej Bartkowiak (Exit Wounds, Romeo Must Die).

For more information on Cradle 2 the Grave, click here

Take care.....come what may

Spiral Clock writes in again with an update on Alex Proyas' new project Riverworld:

The SCI FI CHANNEL have announced the North American premier of RIVERWORLD: Saturday, March 22 2003 at 9pm, with a repeat broadcast at 11pm. Make sure you tune in!

So mark that one on your calendar, Crow Fans! Once again, our many thanks to Sprial Clock for the update.

Dark Horizons has this update in the news today:

Riders on the Storm: MTV reports Edward Furlong is tipped to star in The Doors-inspired film "Riders on the Storm" which follows three college film students who travel to New Mexico looking for "enlightenment". Brad Renfro and Peter Stormare are attached with Furlong likely to do this once work on "The Crow 4" wraps. Furlong is presently well into hard physical training for the 'Crow' feature. The Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek will direct. Thanks to 'Jessica S'.

Take Care......come what may

Frequent visitors to the official website for the Crow, www.thecrow.com probably have noticed instead of the site, you get a ServeNet screen instead. The administrator of the site is aware of the situation. No ETA as to when it will be back up. The site is scheduled to undergo a design change, however that may or may not happen before the site is available again.

Take care.....come what may.

As we all know, Salvation turned out to be Crow 3. But did you ever wonder if there were other scripts looked at? Well there is a possible draft script available online that was one of those possibly looked at for Crow 3. Joshua L Bunkofske sends along this review of the script. We also heard from Bjorn Erik who adds that this "looks" like a Steven E DeSouza script. At any rate, here is what Joshua has to say followed by the link for you to follow and read to make up your mind as to how good you think this might have been:

I've finished reading The Crow: Resurrection script I emailed you about and it was probably one of the worst attempts at a Crow script I've ever read in my life. The story centers around a cop named John Kato who is severly injured when some people he attempted to take down crashed his wedding and killed his wife. John was left catatonic for two years, then awakens with no feelings in regards to pain, heat, cold, gunshots, stab wounds, and sets out to find the people that killed his wife. Keep in mind, he's not dead which is what makes The Crow what it is. The Crow itself is in the script four times, once at the opening, twice in the middle, and once at the end. The script read like some Jet Lit Hong Kong action movie, take away The Crow from the title and that's basically what you have with this story. I thought it was pretty amazing that Kato could go from being completely brain dead to jumping off and across buildings, twisting people's head completely around, and various other things of that sort. Check it out for yourself:

http://home.online.no/~bhundlan/scripts/TheCrow3_unproduced.txt

Thanks to Joshua and Bjorn for sending along the link and information.

Take care.....come what may

Many fans have asked about the latest news that came from Production Weekly via Superherohype on Crow 4. Mainly, the similarity between the gang in Wicked Prayer to the gang in the Crow comic Deadtime. As far as we know, the gang in Wicked Prayer is not a biker gang.

We will continue passing on these reports and adding them to our Crow 4 section. And when we can, give you extra commentary such as this to clarify information.

Take care.....come what may.

Crow Comic Sale

Crow Fan Tim Miller is after some buyers for his collection of Crow comics and books. If you're interested in some Crow Comics, get in touch with him by clicking here.

MadmanOZ sends along this update from Production Weekly via Superherohype:

Production Weekly reports that Edward Furlong ("T2: Judgment Day") will star in The Crow: Wicked Prayer. The third sequel will be directed by Lance Mungia from a script by Jeff Most and Mungia.

The trade says that production is scheduled to begin April 21 on location in either Salt Lake City, Utah or Capetown, South Africa.

Here is the full description transcribed from Production Weekly:

Edward Furlong, is set to star in the "The Crow: Wicked Prayer," the third sequel in "The Crow " franchise, with Lance Mungia ("Six String Samurai") directing.

Production is scheduled to begin April 21 on location in either Salt Lake City, Utah or Capetown, South Africa. The story is based on Norman Partridge's original graphic novel, inspired by the series created by James O'Barr. Jeff Most and Mungia, have penned the current draft of the script. "Wicked Prayer," follows Luc Crash, the charismatic gang leader of a ragtag band of Satanist bikers named after the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Luc murders Jimmy Cuervo (Furlong) and his girlfriend Lily as part of a ritual to become an immortal demon, but Luc finds that Jimmy has been transformed into the avenging spirit known as The Crow, intent on stopping Luc before he can become the Lord Of The Flies.