Script Ideas
- There were many different scripts written for City of Angels, all by David S. Goyer. This comes from the diary of the film (City of Angels.)
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- Like other Crow fans, Goyer agreed with the premise that Eric Draven's story had been told and that a new protagonist should be featured in each subsequent chapter of the saga. The writer also wanted to move the story out of Detroit, but maintain a connection with the first fi;m through the character of Eric's young skateboarding friend, Sarah, who would now be about twenty years old.
- Perhaps the most central element for the genises of a new Crow - a new spirit brought back from the land of the dead - was the one-two punch of the character's unlimited capacity for love, a love that could transcend death and become a force for justice and revenge. And so Ashe Corven was concieved. (His original name was Ashe Crawford!)
- "In this story, Ashe [initially] doesn't know he is dead and, in a sense, is a reluctant avenger," explains Goyer. "It seemed logical to bring back Sarah, someone already connected to the Crow, to help Ashe make his spiritual transition."
- Having newly resurrected Ashe - who is returning to avenge the deaths of himself and his young son - connect with the living Sarah provided a chance to explore a unique facet of the true love element crucial to the Crow mythos.
- While in the first film Eric and Shelly's life together was shown only in brief flashbacks, this time the audience would witness a bond forming between Ashe and Sarah as the story progressed and Ashe carried out his mission. The fact that theirs is a doomed relationship from the start made it all the more intense (and Gothic), contrasting with Ashe's parental love for Danny.
- "We didn't want to tell just the story of a man who lost his lvoer again," says Goyer. "We thought, well, what;s the only thing that could possibly be as heart-wrenching as somebody losing his fiancee, and we concluded that would probabily by losing a child. I know it would be for me."
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Original Concepts
- From the beginning, Goyer's story concepts all featured Ashe, Sarah, Danny, and a villainous Judah Earl. From this foundation came much experimentation and exploration as ideas were tried out, abandoned, and tried again. Some rejected concepts: setting the film in New Orleans instead of Los Angeles, having Ashe work for Judah Earl rather than be a random victim, and bringing back a resurrected Top Dollar as a "maximum villain" greater than Judah Earl.
- "Everyone was so crazy about Michael Wincott's performance in the first film that we seriously considered having Top Dollar make a return appearance," reveals Matt Berenson, Pressman's then-director of development. "Goyer did a very early draft wit that scenario, just to see how it might play out."
- In this version, still set eight years or so after the first film, Judah Earl has inherited Top Dollar's criminal empire, expanding operations to Los Angeles. Ashe is one of Judah's lietenants, and Danny (his kid brother in this version) inadvertently gets in trouble with the gang, resulting in Judah having them both executed. Though obviously a flawed character, Ashe's love for this brother allows him to return for revenge, finding redemption as the Crow.
- Just as Ashe starts closing in on Judah, Grange shows up with Top Dollar's eyeballs in a jar of alcohol, offering to solve Judah's problems for him. Since this was the world of The Crow, Judah Earl - life Top Dollar before him - would have more than a passing familiarity with the occult. He'd figure on fighting fire with fire and thus use Top Dollar's eyes to resurrect Mr. Devels Night and create an evil "Anti-crow" to take on Ashe in a big showdown. But Grange is actually initiating a prearranged resurrection plan which allows the revitalized (and now even more insane) crime lord to take over Judah Earl's body, sending him straight to Hell in exchange for Top Dollar's soul - a trade off with the real Devil.
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