ABaHB: Salvation

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The Crow: 2037 Script

Genre: Horror/Comic Book Adaptation.

Studio: Unknown.
Production Company: Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation.

Project Phase: In Development. (Now terminated)

Who's In It: Unknown.
Who's Making It: Rob Zombie (Director, Screenwriter?); Edward Pressman, Jeff Most (Producers); Andy Gould (Executive Producer).

Premise: October 31, 2010. A young boy and his mother are murdered by a dark priest of the Fallen One...and exactly one year later the Crow returns the spirit of the slain child back to Earth to claim vengence. But unsure of himself, the boy forgets about his horrors. Twenty-seven years later, the boy is now a bounty hunter and finally sets foot on the road to reap the Crow's revenge.

Release Date: Never

So, where did it all start?

Crow 2037 / World of Gods and Monsters / Black Rider X - 29/3/03

Creature Corner follows up with an excellent interview with Rob Zombie, highlighted are the parts about The Crow 2037:

RR: Now did "The Crow 2037" provide a nice warm-up writing-wise when it came to writing the script for "Corpses"?

RZ: Yeah, that helped just because I had never done that before. When I was involved in ["Crow 2037"] and I was like, 'Oh yeah, I'll write the script!' I went home and I was just like, 'Shit! How do you fuckin' write a script?' "Corpses" was a little easier. And I just finished a new script. I think that with certain things like making records or filmmaking there's only one real way to learn how to do it and that is you have to do it. You can think about it all you want, you can read about it all you want, but until you really do it... You know?

RR: Now, what happened with "The Crow" movie?

RZ: I basically bailed on the project. I worked on it for about 18 months. And at the end of 18 months I felt like we had made no headway whatsoever. We were getting ready to start casting, we hired an incredible set designer - this guy, Kreka - who had done 'Delicatessen.' He was amazing. These designs, I still have them, that he did were just outrageous. Incredible. But I felt, as far as creative meetings with the producers, they just could not decide on anything. If something was blue on Friday, come Monday morning it was red and by Thursday it was green. They could not make up their minds. And after 18 months I felt that we had accomplished nothing. I was like, 'I can't take this, I'm losing my mind, I quit.' And, you know, that movie dragged on forever and they ended up doing some direct-to-video thing that had nothing to do with the movie I wanted. Nothing. I know they were doing the same thing with John Carpenter 'cause they were working with him on 'The Martian Chronicles' and it was the same company and they were sort of, like, spending millions of dollars and accomplishing nothing.

Crow 2037 - 28/3/03

Just when you thought you'd heard the last of this film forever, the people over at Creature Corner have this:

LEE'S BRUSH WITH THE CROW

3.27.03 By Ryan Rotten Contributing Sources:

Stories like this make me angry. One of those "what could've been" tales that make you wish things were different in the Hollywood system.

Creature-Corner caught up with Rob Zombie yesterday to discuss his directorial debut "House of 1000 Corpses." As usual, we got sidetracked a bit and talked about his long extinguished sequel to "The Crow" - a project he admittedly backed out of.

Set in the future, his script, entitled "The Crow 2037," followed a young boy murdered with his mother on Halloween by a dark priest. A year later, the spirit of the crow resurrects the kid to seek vengeance. But the boy forgets why he must seek revenge and continues to live his life. Twenty seven years later, the boy is now a man serving as a bounty hunter. When he gets a massive memory recall, he sets out on a path of rage to the priest who killed him.

When asked if there are any horror icons/cult figures he'd love to work with in the future, Zombie reminisced about what could have, should have been:

"When I was working on 'The Crow,' the one person who I had at the top of my casting list was Christopher Lee." Zombie revealed to the Corner. "Of course now he's had this incredible rebirth with 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Star Wars,' but at the time you never saw him anywhere. You know, I flew to London, had dinner up at his house to talk about it. It looked like it was going to happen."

But it didn't happen. Now we're stuck with mindless retreads of the same old "Crow" formula (thanks to Dimension, no less). One doesn't need that much horror knowledge to imagine that Zombie had Christopher Lee in mind for the film's role of the "dark priest."

The "Corpses" director also disclosed why his "Crow" project never took flight...you'll be able to read all about that tomorrow.

2037 Review

Long time friend and contributor to ABaHB, Joshua Bunkofske, has sent in a review of the Crow: 2037 script. See what he has to say about the much discussed script that almost became a Crow movie:

Just wanted to pass along my review of the script for The Crow: 2037. It was an interesting read to say the least, but I can understand now why the producers felt they could make the film without it being a part of The Crow series.

The script starts out pretty good, with a nice shadowy image of christ on the cross and a crow landing on his shoulder, that was pretty much the coolest thing in the script. It was well-written, but too far away from what The Crow is, and in all honesty, the only thing connecting 2037 to The Crow is the bird, which really isn't around much and Crow-vision.

Zombie can definately write a cool script, though. The imagery and story were excellent, albeit somewhat gory, and I could definately hear Rob Zombie's music playing while reading the script.

The story, as everyone knows, is about a young boy and his mother who are killed on halloween night in the year 2010 by a satanic priest. One year later the boy returns from the grave with no knowledge of what happened to him. Twenty seven years later, BASIL, the boy is grown up and is now a bounty hunter tracking down various criminals. But this future is anything BUT futuristic, it's more like the old west meets the Salem Witch Trials, it was different as I was expecting a dark Blade Runner type future.

To put it in a nutshell, The Crow: 2037 would make a cool crow movie IF there was more crow action in it. Basil, the crow, never uses his crow powers, save for Crow-vision a few times here and there.

All in all, the script was a good read, somewhat screwed up, but it was enjoyable and humorous in some spots. I'd give it 7 out of ten crows.

Sincerely,

Joshua L. Bunkofske

Rob Zombie To Direct Next 'Crow' Installment

By Chris Petrikin

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - White Zombie frontman Rob Zombie is set to make his feature film directing debut on "The Crow: 2037," the third installment of "The Crow" series.

The film is based on Zombie's original script. Sources say it will change directions from the revenge fantasies of the first two and focus on a classic horror style.

The story begins in 2010, when a young boy and his mother are murdered on Halloween night by a Satanic priest. A year later, the boy is resurrected as the Crow. Twenty-seven years later, and unaware of his past, he has become a bounty hunter on a collision course with his now all-powerful killer.

Shooting is expected to begin in the fall. Zombie's version will feature entirely new characters. No casting has been set.

The first film -- helmed by former music video director Alex Proyas, and based on James O'Barr's comic strip -- became a cult hit, earning $94 million at the box office worldwide. "The Crow" took on a macabre status after Brandon Lee, who starred as the title character, was accidentally shot and killed on the set eight days before filming was due to wrap.

Another British video helmer, Tim Pope, directed last year's sequel, "The Crow: City of Angels," starring French screen idol Vincent Perez. The film earned $30 million worldwide.

"I've always wanted to make films," said Zombie. "With everything I've ever done, I always approach it from a very visual point of view. So making a movie as high-concept as 'The Crow' was an obvious choice."

Zombie, according to sources, first became interested in The Crow while visiting the set of the original film. Later, White Zombie covered the KC and the Sunshine Band hit "I'm Your Boogie Man" for the sequel's soundtrack.

Developments:

Late August, 1997... Rob Zombie will direct the next Crow film, entitled The Crow: 2037.

Comments: Even though the second film seemed to dissapear from theaters faster than Eric Draven's marriage plans, back in 1995 pre-development for a third Crow film was being discussed. During production of the second film, screenwriter David Goyer mentioned that there were plans afoot to bring back Sarah in a third film as the first female Crow (to be seen.)

Now, following the announcement of Zombie's new direction for the franchise, that story angle has been discarded. Advance word indicates that Zombie's script focuses on the horror aspect of the series.

Rumors: None.

Scoop Feedback:

January-March, 1997... An official annoucement is made by Miramax that the Crow franchise is being revived. Development has begun on both a new film as well as a proposed television series. Although it is still too early in the development process to learn details of the two projects, it looks like Rob Zombie (lead singer of the heavy metal/alternative group White Zombie) may be gearing up to be both the movie's screenwriter and director. Rumor has it the producers were pleased with his music video work and wanted him involved with the next appearance of the dead avenger (Zombie directed the video for I'm Your Boogeyman from the City of Angels soundtrack.) Rumor has it Zombie has been quoted as saying he wants to have the film be completely different in storyline from the first two in the series, throwing out all the baggage except the core Crow mythology. [Scoops sent in by 'widgett', Kyle Clattenburg, 'nog', 'nfmoore', 'g.family' and anonymously.] August 26, 1997... Metal singer Rob Zombie is officially confirmed to direct the third film from his story idea. Titled The Crow: 2037, the film will center on a bounty hunter in the year 2037 who learns that he is actually the latest spirit enfused with the Crow's powers...which happened twenty-seven years ago. Filming is hoped to start this fall. Rob Zombie is working on the film's score together with Nine Inch Nails' Charlie Clouser. [Scooped by 'Spaceboy', Joe Hanna, Christian, 'talldog', 'grubenst', 'corvis666', 'Kilmer10 ', Edward Case, and anonymously.]

To provide some further detail on Zombie's effort into getting this gig, he started writing the script last September just after White Zombie wrapped up its last tour. Also, he's going to be very involved with picking bands to appear on the film's soundtrack. [Sent ot us by Robert Brooks.]

Another email details what the scooper learned at the San Diego Comic Con, including a possible sub-title for the film: 'A New World of Gods and Monsters'. Zombie sported a promo button for the film with artwork done by none other than himself. "Though the film has not been set up with a studio, and may be fiananced via foreign pre-sales, don't count Miramax/Dimension out of the running," said our scooper. A promo button was created using Rob's own artwork and was seen at the con. Though the film has not been set up with a studio, and may be fiananced via foreign pre-sales, don't count Miramax/Dimension out of the running just yet. they tell us. Also, the scooper mentions that a series of novels is being launched by HarperCollins; these share no continuity with any of the films or comics and are stand alone novels. They will be written by better-known Gothic and horror writers, such as Poppy Z. Brite. James O'Barr, creator of the comic, also is working on a pitch for a fourth film, and Zombie might be involved in a comic series set in the world of the film. [Scoop sent to us anonymously - thanks!]

September 2, 1997... An unconfirmed source 'close to one of the production crew' has revealed that Nine Inch Nails member Trent Renzor will play the new Crow in the third film of the series. Also making the rumor rounds are mentions that the ending will feature a "massive apocalyptic war" where both Jesus Christ and Satan appear to sway the Crow to their side and join them in battle (this sounds just a little too fanboy-wish-fulfilment to us.) [Scoop sent in by 'jd3'. Additional scoops by 'mcgillj', 'wlbennett', 'Lawler', 'The Sungodess' and anonymously.]

September 14, 1997... A report from the DarkEcho online newsletter states that Zombie jumped the gun about helming the third Crow film. According to DarkEcho, Zombie and his agent released the press release without the go-ahead from Ed Pressman and Jeff Most, the producers. Pressman and Most are "highly irritated" about the whole thing. [Scoop sent in by 'Widgett'.]

Rob Zombie To Direct Next 'Crow' Installment

Acutal pin handed out my Rob Zombie for promotion of The Crow: 2037:

click for larger image