Another reason not to care about a Crow reboot

It's bad enough Hollywood is remaking The Crow, but the fact Focus Features has been sniffing out the wrong stars for lead makes it even worse.

First Mark Wahlberg was tapped to play Eric Draven, the murdered rock singer who returns from the grave to avenge his wife's murder. We in The Basement breathed a sigh of relief when Wahlberg dropped out of the project, but now word has it A-Team and Hangover star Bradley Cooper is locked for the role and I feel my stomach acid boil over once again.

It's not that Cooper and Wahlberg are bad actors. I don't mind either of them depending on the role. But neither is Crow material. In fact none of the stars who played Draven after the late, great Brandon Lee nailed the part like he did.

It takes more than long hair and face paint to make the character work. Lee had a charisma and presence none of the other actors share. And he wasn't a pretty boy like Cooper or Wahlberg. Truth be told, nothing about this project feels right and I doubt I'll watch the new Crow when it hits theatres. I'll stick to the original instead.

28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has been tapped to helm the remake.

Wahlberg says no to The Crow

Thank F-ing God! The boys at JoBlo.com and Cinematical report that Mark Wahlberg has decided not to step into Brandon Lee's shoes for a Crow reboot, remake, whatever. And we applaud that.

In Wahlberg's own words: "We never committed to making the movie. They talked to me about it and there was a director attached who I was a fan of, and he's no longer doing it. We just thought about it – 'is there something cool to be done there?' But we're not committed to making the movie."

The director he mentions is Stephen Norrington, who had this to say about Wahlberg's involvement with the project after he left: "I think Wahlberg could be cool if they take a gritty blue-collar approach. He's a truthful actor. I think he could really ground the supernatural stuff."

Shawn and I voiced our displeasure at Wahlberg's potential casting here. Now if they can just deep six the project altogether we would truly be happy.