Last we heard, the planned remake of the 1994 Alexander Proyas title starring Brandon Lee, The Crow, was facing its possible demise by way of legal battles after The Weinstein Company presented to the court their case for owning full rights to distribute the movie globally, and seeking that production be halted on the project.

Since then the two parties have been going back and forth (we’ll touch more on that below), but none of this is preventing Relativity Media from continuing to put their pieces together on the film. It’s being reported that the studio has hired screenwriter Alex Tse to work on the script, which would follow his work on the Zack Snyder adaptation of the classic Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons graphic novel, Watchmen.

Tse joins director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Days Later), and yes, Bradley Cooper (Midnight Meat Train, The Hangover), who is still attached to star in the remake should the Weinsteins lose their case.

Going back to the battle between brothers Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein and Relativity Media’s Ryan Kavanaugh, THR, Esq. updated the case recently. Relativity seemed perfectly confident that the case was ridiculous and that they had it won already, saying:

Relativity Media prevailed over The Weinstein Company in court today. The Court agreed with Relativity that TWC’s lawsuit against Relativity was improper and violated the parties’ arbitration agreement. TWC must now defend itself in the ongoing arbitration proceeding filed by Relativity. In that proceeding, Relativity claims damages in excess of $20 million against TWC for its egregious mishandling of the movie Nine and seeks rescission of the parties’ agreement with respect to The Crow. Today’s ruling demonstrates that TWC’s efforts to misuse the court system as a means of intimidation against Relativity failed. Relativity expects to prevail on all of its claims against TWC in arbitration.

To which TWC responded:

Relativity has attempted to distort a garden variety procedural motion into something it was not. They should be ashamed of themselves. Today’s hearing was completely procedural. At issue was an ambiguous provision in a contact which made it unclear whether TWC’s injunction claim against Relativity should be heard in court or in an arbitration. The Court acknowledged that the provision was not amodel of clarity and further suggested that it was a close question as to whether arbitration or litigation was the appropriate forum. There was no misuse or abuse of the system. The Court said nothing remotely like that. Any suggestion by Relativity to the contrary is patently false. Relativity’s gratuitous attacks on the motives of TWC and its counsel are both unprofessional and grossly inaccurate.

And that’s where things stand. Again, Relativity seems pretty sure that one way or another things are going to work out for them, and they’re continuing to hire and cast on The Crow despite the legal threat.

[Source: Variety]