A Boy and His Bird News February 2003

February 27th, 2004
James Heads To The Beach To Celebrate The Crow's 10th Anniversary

Crow creator James O'Barr is one of the special guests invited to special event being held in Jamaica to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the first film's release. That is right, Jamaica! There is a special event going on called Bloody Beach. Authors and actors from vampire stories/movies to dark tales such as The Crow will be converging there. Check out the website for all the details.

Thanks to Rene Zain for the heads up.

Take care....


February 21st, 2004
Megacon & DragonFly Update

Megacon is right around the corner and this will be southern area Crow fans first chance to see James O'Barr in sometime! The promoters have asked and James has agreed to do a Crow panel! The details are below:

Meet James O’Barr – Creator of Crow

Saturday, March 6th – Room 312B, 1:30p.m. – 2:20p.m.

James will be at booth 912, Dragonfly, right next to Wizard World and will start taking sketch reservations on Friday March 5th at 11:00am. The first 25 folks to commission a sketch (sketches start at $25 and go up depending on how much detail and the medium you want), will receive a free hardcover sketchbook.

Dragonfly will have the Red Nights variant on hand (limited to 99 copies.....#1 is being donated to the ACTOR auction to support retired comic book artists). They will retail for $60 and are sure to sell out fast. There is a strict limit of 3 per person. This mini-statue is one of the most sought after Crow products that has come out in a long time.

Also on hand will be The Return Statues, a very limited number of previous convention exclusives (if any!), Crow lunchboxes (limited amounts on hand) and more Crow sketchbooks for purchase!

And there is more. Look for another contest to be sponsored by DragonFly coming up. Information to follow.

Take care.....


February 19th, 2004
What Do We Know For Sure About Wicked Prayer?

We thought after all the fury of news reports lately, it was a good time to hit the brakes and let you know what we know for sure about the production of Wicked Prayer.

First, according to sources in the production, the film has not yet been delivered to Miramax. The film continues to be a work in progress. It looks like the film will be delivered to Miramax sometime April 2004. Why is the post production editing taking so long? They are working as fast as they can, while maintaining a sense of quality above speed. Special effects, music score, etc, continue to be worked on and added.

They have a "work in progress" cut of the film, which has been seen by select production staff only. All are VERY pleased with the film. If anyone outside of the production has seen this film, they did so by breaking into the production offices, made a copy and went home and viewed it. As everyone knows, the script and trailer for the film have not leaked out to the general public, you would imagine the security around the film itself is even tighter. As we mentioned yesterday, the only people who have seen this film in any form that could comment on it is the production. And there is no way someone from the production is going to say the film sucks. It would be professional suicide.

The decision for direct to video is still in the balance. It could go either way. Miramax holds the cards on this decision. They may already have made the decision on paper to go direct to video, but it would be a decision of economics, not quality at this point since the film hasn't even been delivered to them yet. Miramax will get the film in April. They will suggest cuts/additions. When the film is at a point Miramax is ready to screen it, they will hold screenings to gauge audience response. Based on those screenings, more cuts/additions could be requested. The film will then have its final cut produced and at that time, expect a more absolute decision. Until then, reports other than directly coming from Miramax and Pressman, are going to be mostly speculation. We do know that the production staff have been given nothing by confident feedback from Miramax in regard to the script, cast selection and daily footage. They remain optimistic that the film will be released theatrically, but again, it all falls to Miramax and what they feel is the most profitable route.

Hope this helps sort through all the information that has been reported this week. We are staying on top of things and will report what we know when we know it.

Take care...


February 18th, 2004
Rena Owen's Site Refutes Bloody disgusting Report & ABaHB Digs Deeper

It seems the report that Bloody Disgusting ran a few days ago is tainted. The webmaster of Rena Owen's site (she plays Mary in Wicked Prayer) says that Rena has never made the comments that were reported by Bloody Disgusting in their initial report. Click here to see the full comments.

We have done some checking on our own. We can report, without any doubt, that Wicked Prayer has NOT BEEN VIEWED by anyone outside of the production. In fact, the film has NOT been delivered to Miramax yet and won't be for a few more months. Those on the production that have seen a very early rough cut of the film are extremely pleased with how the film is shaping up. NO ONE, we repeat, NO ONE outside of the production has seen this film to be able to rate it "crappy" or "awful" as Bloody Disgusting has reported. The film is no where close to being in a form to have any type of screenings, not to mention that will not happen until Miramax sees the film and as we said, that is not for a few more months. The only way for someone to have seen this film in the very raw form it is in now is for them to have infiltrated the production and made a copy. Beyond that, we here at ABaHB have been privy to the script as well as the trailer and can say that without hesitation there is no way this film is anything less than fantastic!

Keep checking in with us on the latest information on The Crow: Wicked Prayer as we continue to sift through all these reports on the net.

Take care....


February 17th, 2004
COA on HBO

The Comics Continuum lets us know that The Crow: City of Angels will be on HBO at the convenient time of 1:40 a.m on Saturday, April 3. It will also be on at 2:50 a.m. on April 16 and Tuesday, April 27 at 9:30 p.m. Tune in, Crow Fans!


February 16th, 2004
Bloody Disgusting Posts Negative News for Wicked Prayer

Raven. and Abraham R. past on this link to Bloody Disgusting. The site reports they have it on good authority that Wicked Prayer is going direct to video. We caution that this report, like the previous ones, comes prior to Dimension having seen the film to make this decision. So though the report cites it comes from a reliable source, we will have to see just how this plays out. Again, no official word from either Miramax or Pressman, so we have to take these reports with a grain of salt. Here is the link.



February 15th, 2004
Toy Fair 2004 Features The Crow

Long time friend Chuck sends a long this link showing the Crow wares being shown at the Toy Fair 2004 show. Some very realistic looking figures!!!

Thanks to Chuck for the heads up

Take care.

UK Magazine Mentions Wicked Prayer

Matt Reynolds sends us this little tid bit from the February issue of the UK Sky TV magazine which mentions Wicked Prayer:

"Angel star David Boreanaz will also be making the leap to film- but not too far from the dark side. He'll be joining Edward Furlong, Dennis Hopper and Tara Reid in The Crow: The Wicked Prayer. Oh dear"

Matt says this could be a could sign that UK fans may see the film theatrically. Time will tell. Matt points out the "oh dear" line is kind of "interesting", not sure what that meant. Who knows.....surely folks wouldn't judge the film before it came out! :)

Thanks to Matt Reynolds for alerting us to this.

Also on the UK front, we have continually been asked when the third Crow movie, Salvation, will make its video/DVD debut in the UK. Over at the Crowcoll forum, there has been some discussion about a possible April 2004 date for UK fans to get Salvation. Now that is not totally confirmed. Head over to Crowcoll and check out the discussion on it (see our external links menu on the left side of the news page). It sounds promising, but we will just have to see if it comes true.

Take care....


February 10th, 2004
Undying Love Winners

First, thanks to the 30 folks who entered our contest. That is right, 30 folks took the time to enter. The largest response yet for a contest here at ABaHB. Now on to the winners.

The first place winner will receive the prototype of the Dance of the Dead figure. That person is:

Matthew Reed of Akron, Ohio

Second place winner, who will receive the winter variant of the The Return statue is:

Scott Borda of Roselle, Illinois

Third place winner, who will receive the Crow sketchbook and O'Barr signature card:

Jonathon Schnabel of Mosinee, Wisconsin

Congratulations to these folks. It was a close contest. I would like to thank our judges, Deader, Matt, Grace & Dom. You ladies and gentlemen had a hard job.

Thanks to the good folks at DragonFly for once again giving our visitors some great prizes to shoot for. Look for them and James at the MegaCon coming up in March! More details on that event coming soon.

Take care.....


February 6th, 2004
Crowcollcity Puts Out First Newsletter

The good folks over at Crowcollcity have published their first online newsletter. It is a very cool read. It has information on upcoming events they are sponsoring, as well as personal things such as birthdays of the Crow Community Online, weddings, etc. They link back to us for news as well as the Crowfanclub and ChambeRoom. I have long envisioned a centralized Crow online community forming and this is one of the steps towards that. We all bring certain elements to the Crow online community and working together, we can create an online community which could rival any of the larger fan bases on the net. Give the newsletter a look. I'm sure you will enjoy it and check out the rest of the site.

Take care.....


February 4th, 2004
Undying Love Contest Ends February 4th

Just a reminder, our Undying Love contest is close to ending. We have extended the submit no later than time to midnight of February 4th (had been noon). We can not extend the time out any longer than that due to the quickness needed to get all the entries judged, winners contacted and addresses passed on to DragonFly so merchandise arrives in time for Valentines Day. So send your entries to abahb1@hotmail.com by midnight, February 4th. The response has been fantastic! We will contact the winners via email (so everyone that has entered, be sure to check your email daily). Once the winners have been contacted, we will post their names in our news section.

Take care.....


February 3rd, 2004
Fan Fiction

We have received two new pieces of fan fiction for your reading. The first is a script written by Carla, based on the Crow television series Stairway to Heaven. The other is a poem from Steve Escobar titled "One Final Oath". Give these two new entries a read. Thanks to Steve and Carla for sharing their work with the rest of us.

Wicked Prayer Update

The film should be to the folks at Miramax late February, early March. It is only when Miramax has viewed the film, scheduled some test screenings and gotten feed back, that we will have a definitive answer to the release question (theatrical or straight to DVD). All those within the production are still positive that Miramax/Dimension will be pleased with the film. So we just wait now. A little something on the Wicked Prayer front, many have asked about the official Crow site www.thecrow.com . Yes, it will come back, though it is not for certain the exact timeframe. It will come out prior to Wicked Prayer's release, but the movie's release date is not set in stone yet, so nothing concrete on the site. Also, when it does come back, expect a more generic look, with no specific focus on any one particular Crow film. Also, in the beginning, there probably will not be a discussion forum, that and other enhancements will come later. As usual, this is all subject to change, but that is the latest we know about it.

Contest

Do not forget to get your entry in for the Undying Love contest. We want to know, in 150 words or less, why you have an undying love for your partner or perhaps someone you are no longer with. This can be submitted in essay or poem form. However you decided to express that love, it just needs to convey the emotions you feel. Send entries to abahb1@hotmail.com. We have some fantastic prizes donated by the generous folks at DragonFly. The half-priced sale on The Return has expired, hope anyone wanting to add this fantastic statue took advantage of this offer. Also, don't forget, they and James O'Barr will be at March's MegaCon. It stands to be a fantastic opportunity to get some great collectable items and meet the creator of The Crow.

That is it for now. Thanks to all of our visitors for your continued support and tips. We work hard to keep you informed and we appreciate the hard work you put into keeping up with us everyday and getting information to us. Irony and LLcruize are celebrating 8 years together this year. We have enjoyed the ride and look forward to another 8 years!

Take care….