Juan Carlos Fresnadillo will direct 'The Crow' reboot

Hollywood keeps remaking and rebooting films so often it would take a blog devoted entirely to the subject to have a chance of staying abreast of it all.

Still, sometimes you just have to take a moment and say...really?

Such is the case of Relativity Media's announcement yesterday that they have signed director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (“28 Weeks Later”) to “re-imagine” the 1994 cult hit, “The Crow.”

According to Relativity, Fresnadillo will collaboratively develop the script once a writer is attached to adapt the screenplay. Casting has not yet been announced.

The Crow adaptation will be a reboot of the iconic cult character Eric Draven, who’s resurrected as The Crow to avenge his wife’s murder so he can reunite with her in the hereafter, as first envisioned by graphic novelist James O’Barr, the studio said.

“Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is an incredibly talented and imaginative filmmaker,” Relativity Media’s president of worldwide production Tucker Tooley said. “We are thrilled to have him at the helm and are excited to work with both Pressman and Apaches on what we all believe will be a compelling and innovative reimagining of 'The Crow.'”

“The original 'Crow' was groundbreaking cinema; its gothic visual and musical ideas influenced a generation and cinema itself,” said Producer Edward R. Pressman, who has worked on the entire franchise. “With Juan Carlos, we have every confidence that his new 'Crow' will have a similar impact on the contemporary audience.”

Here's a thought. When a film's “visual and musical ideas influenced a generation and cinema itself,” doesn't it deserve to stand on its own and be remade 17 years later? Of course there have been sequels, but fans have had the luxury to simply ignore them, and as far as I can tell, most have.

(This doesn't get into the fact that Brandon Lee was killed on set while filming the original “Crow” by a gun mishap. Good luck to the guy who has to step into those shoes.)

Ignoring the inherit absurdity of remaking “The Crow,” is there really a market for a reboot? The original film made around $50 million at the box office. The first sequel, “City of Angels” (1996) made far less--$17.9 million. The next two--“Salvation” (2000) and “Wicked Prayer” (2005)--didn't even make it to theaters and instead went direct to video. Each of the sequels was met with progressively worse receptions.

The original comic was published in 1989 and no new material has come out since 1999. The only seemingly existing fan-base is those of the first film, who will most likely greet this latest news on the same level as blasphemy.

I guess we've just reached a point where Hollywood thinks a “groundbreaking” film is simply one that needs to be done again.