The curse of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen continues to affect cinema even today with the news that Stephen Norrington (who directed the aforementioned flick, along with the first Blade movie) has left the planned The Crow re-boot due to good ol creative differences. Norrington divulged the information to Comics2Film, when they asked him about Mark Wahlbergs involvement with the project Norrington replied; "I don't know about that story but I can tell you I'm no longer involved with The Crow. As much as I wasnt looking forward to this remake it at least had a re-draft being written by musician and novelist (and, of course, screenwriter of the down and dirty Western The Proposition) Nick Cave and offered a new take on James OBarrs graphic novel that inspired the fantastic Alex Proyas original from 1994; made infamous by the death of star Brandon Lee mid-shoot. The differences emerged when a star who was attached to the project demanded that Norrington ditch the current script and start anew with another writer. Norrington commenting;
"As I had gotten involved explicitly as a writer-director my exit was inevitable. I was bummed. I had developed a genuinely authentic take that respected the source material while moving beyond it, and Nick Cave came in and added more depth... I think the fans would have been pleasantly surprised."
This was to be Norringtons return to the silver screen after the fiasco of 2003's LXG, which was also plagued by troubles, hed spent 18 months developing this film, but fortunately at least he has some other projects in development so his absence from directing might not be so lengthy. The filmmaker says he's now focused on 'The Lost Patrol' for Legendary Pictures and is developing his latest draft of the script for that film.
"I'm also just about to start production on an indie animation/live action project, which will take a few years to complete."
So, who should pick up the reins from Norrington? And who was the un-named star that managed to boot both director and writer off the project?