The Crow director says remake contains “the darkness and the violence that’s in the graphic novel”

Rupert Sanders has promised plenty of “darkness” and “violence” in his upcoming remake of The Crow, which will hit cinemas on August 23.

In a new interview with Empire, the director has described this reboot as a more of a “scrappy indie movie”, and that there’s “nothing to do with Hollywood in this movie at all”.

As such, he says, that means it’s able to reflect the James O’Barr 1989 graphic novel that inspired it – rather than it being a big studio remake of the beloved 1994 film which starred the late Brandon Lee.

Rupert tells Empire that his version of The Crow – which is described in the synopsis as a ‘modern reimagining of the original graphic novel’ – is “able to remain close to the centre and the darkness and the violence” that’s in James O’Barr’s work.

Indeed, lead actor Bill Skarsgård – who plays Eric Draven – also told Esquire in May of the darkness within his character, and why he gets offered lots of those particular roles: “I’m drawn toward them the same way they’re drawn toward me.”

A full synopsis for this new version of The Crow reads: ‘Soulmates Eric Draven (Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.’

Watch the Ozzy Osbourne-soundtracked trailer below:

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