New "Crow" to be earnest, take self VERY seriously, possibly speak to animals

Bloody Disgusting says that Relativity Media's long-gestating Nick Cave/Steve Norrington relaunch of "The Crow" is ramping up again, and that the producers have offered the title role to their first choice: Mark Wahlberg. Apparently, this is for real.

LET THE PHOTOSHOPPING OF STILLS FROM "MAX PAYNE"... BEGIN!!!

I "get" the iconic stature of "The Crow" in the popular culture - Brandon Lee and all that - but beyond that isn't it one of those franchises that "belongs" to the era in culture/music/fashion/etc in which it came out? To me, making another "Crow" movie makes about as much sense as making another Superfly, or a "modern" All In The Family. Part of the reason the franchise stalled-out in the first place is that the audio/visual "atmosphere" associated with the first film - i.e. all the stuff that set it apart from any other generic "revenge from beyond the grave" story was "over" before the second one even came out. Having ANY actor running around looking like Robert Smith as a transgendered ninja-clown is going to be as out of place as bellbottoms and tie-dye.

You have to imagine Wahlberg - the quintessential "all-American-guy" leading-man - has been offered a ton of genre/superhero roles at this point, and he hasn't taken any of them... yet. So there's no garauntee he'll accept this one. If he does, I'd expect a significantly different interpretation of the character than we've seen before... and not just because it's hard to imagine Wahlberg not physically assaulting any makeup-artist who comes near him with a mascara brush.