The Crow: 18 behind-the-scenes secrets you never knew

A gothic action fantasy about love and revenge, dressed in leather and makeup, The Crow was a comic book movie like no other. The same year that a low-budget adaptation of The Fantastic Four was made, The Crow was a small-budget film that contained a large helping of offbeat cinematography, impressive fight choreography, and compelling story arcs. While it may not have had much extra money to throw around, it meant the crew had to think of unique ways to solve certain cinematic problems, resulting in more impressive images than expected.

Despite its many successes, the film was overshadowed by the tragic death of its lead actor, Brandon Lee, just days before filming ended. The 28-year-old son of the famous martial artist Bruce Lee passed away without ever feeling the effects of . to have learned the crow inheritance. A cult classic among comic book fans and movie buffs alike, nevertheless, a reboot starring Jason Momoa is in the works and we hope it pays homage to the stylish original. In the meantime, many interesting facts about the 1994 film have come to light in the years since its release.

18 IT WAS THE NUMBER ONE MOVIE IN AMERICA

The crow came on 13. May 1994 in theaters and was an immediate hit. It was the number one film in America in its first weekend and continued to reap high box office receipts. Originally, test screenings of the film had made executives wary that audiences might suspend their disbelief enough to accept that Eric Draven had returned from the dead with mystical powers for no other reason than to avenge the death of his fiancee.

Their fears were buried when the box office numbers came in, aided by a well-crafted soundtrack that perfectly captured the mood of the movie. The main song of the film was The Cure's Burn, and the rest of the soundtrack was an offbeat mix of Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails, and bands like Bahaus that O'Barr had heard in Berlin. Roger Ebert and Rolling Stone gave the film rave reviews.

17 Misfortune plagued the set

While many movie sets deal with setbacks, The Crow had a worrisome number of incidents during its shooting schedule. On the first day of filming, a worker touched a high-voltage wire and was electrocuted on a studio lot. In another incident, a disgruntled employee drove his car through the studio plaster workshop.

While building some large set pieces, a construction worker slipped, causing a screwdriver to go through his hand. One of the film's publicists was injured in a car accident while driving off the set, and toward the end of filming, a stormy storm destroyed certain parts of the set. All the misfortune culminated in the horrific and shocking death of star Brandon Lee.

16 THE DIRECTOR DONATES MOST OF HIS PROFITS TO CHARITY

Despite the fact that The Crow was very successful, James O'Barr did not do anything spectacular with all the money he got . except to donate practically everything to charity. He got his mom the house she needed, bought a fancy surround system, and then felt bad about having to keep what he considered blood money because of Brandon Lee's death.

He kept the secret of his charitable contribution for decades, claiming that if people knew about it, it couldn't really be considered charitable in his book. A self-proclaimed shy person, it took him a long time to become emotionally comfortable after the tragic events that surrounded him The Crow. Since he was good friends with Brandon, it only made sense that he would not want to profit at his expense.

fifteen THE COMIC WAS WRITTEN BY A MARINE

James O'Barr was drawing combat manuals in the Marines in 1981 when he decided to tell the story of . to write The Crow. He had recently lost his fiancee in a fatal car accident with a drunk driver, and no amount of partying or drug abuse could numb him from the pain. He had also recently read a headline about a couple who were murdered over a $30 engagement ring, and thought the couple would make good protagonists for his story.

That the agony is pervasive The Crow is based on real events and adds another dimension to its immersive world of grief and loss. O'Barr hoped that through the comic he could not only find a way to channel his anger, but also find a way for love to overcome death. The endurance of love was to become a focal point of the film.

14 IT WAS ALMOST A MUSICAL WITH MICHAEL JACKSON

The tone, ambiance, aesthetics, and general mood of The Crow is pure gothic cheese, yet there is a seriousness to it that wants to be taken seriously. Thanks to top-notch performances from all the players, who know when to mug and when to wink at the audience, it never takes itself too seriously nor is it ever too ridiculous. However, if early proposals had been considered, it would have been a musical with Michael Jackson.

Top executives thought the look Jackson put in his music videos for ' Bad' and Dirty Diana' was perfect for Eric Draven. Also, Eric was a musician, so it only made sense to them that there were songs. When it was presented to author James O'Barr, he reportedly laughed hysterically before rejecting the idea, fearing that any fight scene would look like something out of the gang violence in West Side Story .

13 THE FILM WAS MADE QUICKLY TO GO WITH THE THIRD ISSUE

The Crow comic book hit the stands in 1989 after much tweaking by writer James O'Barr. He was working in a body shop at the time and was paid a handsome sum for all rights to The Crow in perpetuity by a Hollywood director. Although a lot of money was involved, O'Barr consulted a Hollywood agent and was advised against the deal.

As luck would have it, he was approached again, but this time by a writer and producer interested in helping The Crow Movie take wing without O'Barr having to sell his copyright. He's getting a lot less money than the first deal, but the movie was done his way with a lot of creative input and he could still keep the brand for future endeavors.

12 THE LOVE STORY WASN'T AS PROMINENT IN THE COMICS

While the overarching theme of the film is the eternal permanence of love, it was not as prominent in The Crow comic book. Writer James O'Barr dealt with the loss of his fiancee to a drunk driver, and much of the comic dealt with how protagonist Eric Draven dealt with the death of his fiancee Shelly. Eric Draven was a heavy drug user, an element eliminated in the film.

There was an obvious amount of violence and mayhem and long passages where a messenger from the afterlife named Skull Cowboy visits Eric and explains to him the responsibilities and parameters of his new identity as The Crow, a spiritual entity that inhabits a deceased person so that they might have the power to take revenge on whoever wronged them in life.

eleven THE SCREENBOOK WAS CO-WRITTEN BY A HORROR WRITER

When the first drafts of the script were exchanged between writer John Shirley and writer James O'Barr, he feared that too many changes had been made to his comic book. While he could understand downplaying the hero's drug use and removing supporting characters, he felt it went in an uncomfortable creative direction. David J. Shirley, writer of Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III as well as Beings 3 and 4, came on board to collaborate and bring the story back to its core concepts.

It was Schow who eliminated many superfluous villains in favor of one main villain and a hierarchy of henchmen, making Devil's Night, the famous night before Halloween known for arson and misfortune in Detroit, the main reason for the attack on Eric and Shelly. He also turned Eric Draven into the goth, rock and roll terminator we see in the film.

10 A MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTOR SHOT IT

In the 90s, Alex Proyas was the director everyone wanted to work with, even though he hadn't made a single feature film yet. His work consisted entirely of music videos and commercials, but his style was fresh and inventive, and he was just waiting for the writing project to put his signature touches on. He felt that The Crow was just the kind of movie to start his career in cinema, and became part of the team in 1991.

While the original concepts for the film were that it was a musical starring Michael Jackson of all people, the addition of a music video director meant slick camera work, stylish set pieces and great costumes, all perfect for a film about a dead rock and roll musician who comes back to life to avenge the death of his fiancee.

9 A ROCK STAR ALMOST PLAYED ERIC DRAVEN

Already since The Crow is about a dead rock'n'roller, it makes some sense that a musician should play him. That is, if there was actually a big focus on Eric Draven playing music in the movie, but there is only one brief scene in which he plays guitar. The producers initially wanted Charlie Sexton, a rocker from Texas, but when it became clear that more acting and less singing was required, they quickly began looking for young actors who could pass for musicians but still carry the dramatic elements.

Not only did the actor have to be able to bring a gritty sincerity to the role of Eric Draven, but he also had to be able to perform all of the fight choreography. Although Brandon Lee only had a few small film credits, he was more than able to meet all of their requirements.

8 THE MAKEUP WAS SURPRISINGLY DIFFICULT TO DIRECT

Yes, Eric Draven's makeup looks a bit like KISS meets Alice Cooper, but James O'Barr denies that the two artists were an inspiration. Instead, he attributes the uniquely fanciful look to the Harlequin mask he saw on the side of a theater in London. He thought it was especially poignant to have a character who was so desperate to constantly have a smile on his face.

Applying grease paint to actor Brandon Lee's face took about an hour, except no one was pleased with how neat it looked. The perfectly applied presentation was at odds with the manic, angsty nature of the character. This led director Alex Proyas to suggest he apply the paint himself and then sleep in it overnight so he could show up to set wearing makeup.

7 THE ACTORS GET INTO CHARACTER IN CRAZY WAYS

The cast was a pretty motley crew of misfits, with most of the shenanigans coming from the rogues gallery that made up Top Dollar's nefarious gang of henchmen. Laurence Mason, who played Tin Tin, was given extensive knife-throwing lessons so she could play a knife-throwing hooligan with credibility and precision. It enhanced the authenticity when he went up against Eric Draven.

Michael Massee, who played Funboy, spent time meticulously building an Iggy Pop-inspired wardrobe for his character and greatly enhancing his character's flamboyant elements. Michael Wincott, who played Top Dollar, read extensively on the occult and honed his fencing skills, as Top Dollar was both a mystic junkie and a sword collector. It also helped him look believable in his duel with Draven on the roof of a Gothic church during the film's finale.

6 A LOT OF PRACTICAL EFFECTS WERE USED

On a tight budget of about a million dollars, which is a couch change by today's comic book movie standards, The Crow managed to use practical effects and camera tricks to create some impressive images. The opening Devil's Night sequence, in which Top Dollar's gang sets fire to the entire city of Detroit, was created using projection technology rather than CGI (which just became available). A screen was set up in front of a miniature set of Detroit, onto which flames were projected on multiple passes.

For the iconic scene where Eric Draven tosses a series of engagement rings down his shotgun barrel, the crew went big this time and dropped several oversized rings through a cloud of smoke onto a round barrel, creating the illusion that you would see the rings plummet down the barrel of a shotgun from the perspective of the barrel.

5 BRANDON LEE'S DEATH

Although the event was widely publicized in 1993, the circumstances surrounding the death of star Brandon Lee just days before filming was completed were always nebulous. Due to the fact that Lee's famous father Bruce Lee had died at the similarly young age of 32, some believed that his son's death at the age of only 28 was due to a family curse.

In an eerie turn of events, the final days of filming were devoted to shooting the flashback scenes of Eric Draven's death. He would walk into his apartment to find his fiancee Shelly had been humiliated by Top Dollar's henchmen. Funboy draws a .44 Magnum and shoot at him, and he sinks to the ground. The crew only realized that Lee had actually been seriously injured when he didn't get up after the director's cut.

4 BRANDON LEE'S DEATH WAS ACCIDENTALLY LAID OUT

The tragedy of Brandon Lee's death was not due to a bad play by Chinese gangsters or a family curse, as many theorized; it happened because of an accident due to a rushed schedule and exhausting hours. In the flashback scene where Funboy shoots him for interrupting his fiancee's humiliation, a combination of dummies and empty bullets were used.

Dummy bullets (bullets without powder) were used for the hero shot, blanks were used for everything else. Since the film was behind schedule, dummy bullets were hastily made from real bullets, and a lead tip from one of them got stuck in the gun barrel, so even after the switch to blanks, firing one sent the lead tip toward Lee and punctured the trunk of his aorta.

3 SEVEN SHOTS WERE MADE WITH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

Due to the fact that Brandon Lee died before the film was finished, the VFX company Dream Quest Images was hired to complete seven shots. They took previously filmed footage, such as Lee stumbling down a flight of stairs, and filmed him entering his abandoned property, superimposing a matte painting of a door he could enter.

For the shot of him standing in front of a broken mirror in his apartment, they took another picture of him and composited it over each broken mirror shard, using a stand as a guide. Stand-ins had to be used for all shots, but they were often shot over the shoulder or overlaid with another image of Lee.

two MICHAEL WINCOTT AD-LIBBED MOST OF THE TOP DOLLAR LINES

Top Dollar is a unique character and an enigmatic villain with his long black hair, 19th-century costume. He's played by gravel-voiced Michael Wincott, who was known for playing villains in movies like Kevin Costner's Robin Hood, Disney's The Three Musketeers, and There Came a Spider in the '90s. Through starring in historical adventure films, he had extensive fencing experience, which he further refined to make his character's threats especially deadly.

Where Wincott shines is in his lengthy monologues on everything from capitalism to the seven deadly sins to matters of heaven and hell. The eccentric delivery of his lines, as well as their content, were no accident; he often ad-libbed lines on the spot, which were retained in the final cut of the film for their lyrical and poetic quality.

1 IT GENERATED SEVERAL SEQUELS

Although James O'Barr did not intend The Crow to necessarily become a franchise, he knew the potential was there. Since he didn't have to sell the copyright to get the film made at all, he was free to license the material to anyone who wanted to put their own creative stamp on the supernatural storyline. If only this creative stamp were of the quality of the first film, but alas The Crow: City of Angels, The Crow: Redemption, The Crow: Evil Prayer, and a short-lived television series starring Iron Chef 's Mark Dacascos called The Crow: Stairway to Heaven never captured the eccentricities of the original. They were just cheap.

The Crow reboot has been in the works since 2008, and although it has gone through several stars and directors, the original producers signed on in 2016 with Jason Momoa starring as Eric Draven.

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