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Alex Proyas, who directed 1994’s The Crow, has mocked the film’s recent reboot after it flopped at the box office.
The 2024 version, directed by Rupert Sanders, was released in cinemas earlier this month and opened to a US box office take of $4.6m against a reported production budget of $50m.
Writing on Facebook, Proyas wrote: “I thought the remake was a cynical cash-grab. Not much cash to grab it seems.”
Proyas has shared several negative reviews of the reboot, including one which declared it “the worst movie of the year.”
The filmmaker captioned the post: “The review we’ve all been waiting for. It’s a bit like flogging a dead horse now so I think I’ll stop after this… until another funny one comes along!”
He also shared various memes such as a spoof Facebook disaster response graphic that declared he’d been “marked safe from The Crow 2024.”
The reboot sees It star Bill Skarsgård take on the lead role originally made famous by Brandon Lee, who was killed in an on-set shooting accident during production.
The 2024 version, which also stars musician FKA Twigs, has become one of the worst-reviewed films of the year.
Even Skarsgård recently criticized the film’s ending, telling Esquire that he believes the final scenes leave things open for a sequel but: “I personally preferred something more definitive.”
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Sanders hit back at this criticism, telling Variety: “Ironically, I don’t think that’s true at all.”
He continued: “If there is a sequel down the line, maybe 30 years from now, they’re gonna have to figure out a way to get themselves out of jail a bit because it’s certainly not, ‘What happens next?’ That would be cheap and not the sentiment in which we made the film. Bill and I probably watched five endings together, I probably cut 20 endings.”
Sanders said he thinks “the editing and the cinema language, instead of words, is really what elevates the film”, adding: “So the ending came out of a lot of trial and error: How do we find this emotional ending? The people you invest in through the whole film are not allowed to be together again, but you want this feeling that it all was worth it.
“It’s the right ending for the movie and there’s something very decisive about our ending. It’s not expected, it’s not ‘happy’ and it’s certainly not like, Wait for the sequel!’
Fortunately for Skarsgård and Proyas, the film’s dismal box office takings make it unlikely a follow-up will be made any time soon.
