As the Crow Flies... Again...

The DVD set for "The Crow: Stairway to Heaven" is set for release on July 24, 2007.

It comes from Hart Sharp Video out of New York.

Lead actor Mark Dacascos and I recorded a two-hour audio commentary for the project in May 2007.

I've also given them the show's "gag reel" for some comic relief, plus a collection of dailies and promotional materials.

So there should be sufficient "goodies" to make this stand out from any bootleg or anything else that has come before.

I've written extensively about the experience of developing the Crow franchise for TV and working as the executive producer on the series.

By going to that post, you can download either the original pilot script, or the series bible written before we got started, or even the episode summaries as they were kept by the writing staff. Just CLICK HERE.

My best wishes to all the fans for their continuing support!

*****

Must be something in the water. A few weeks ago, I got the news that my NBC series DARK SKIES (co-created with Brent V. Friedman) would be released by SONY on DVD this October. Now comes the news that THE CROW: STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN a series I developed and executive produced for Polygram TV will now be released by NBC-Universal this July. Woo-hoo!

Apparently, it'll be a four-DVD box set released under the "TV Guide Presents" banner. (And thanks to writer-pal Lee Goldberg for knowing this before I did and telling me!) I've been waiting for some kind of news peg like this to hang this blog-post on because I loved that series and it was a terrific creative experience.

It started back in 1998 when I was asked to develop "The Crow" film and graphic novel franchise into a TV series by the now-defunct Polygram TV. It raised an interesting challenge:

What do you do when the incredibly violent film you are asked to adapt to a TV audience is based on cruelty, and the main character is driven by a thirst for revenge?  

My answer? You expand the premise to fully explore the nature of life after death, and you change the character quest from revenge to redemption.

And how do you handle the fact that the cult film was made infamous by the horrible on-set death of its star, Brandon Lee?

That was a tougher question because the idea behind the TV series was to use the Eric Draven character, the one who'd been in the comics and that Brandon Lee had played. My take was that, tragic as Lee's death was, George Reeves' tragic death did not prevent Christopher Reeve or Dean Cain from playing Superman, and that we would just have to proceed and hope that our own version stood intact on its own. So, besides the conceptual changes, we also reached out to actor Mark Dacascos who created a Crow/Draven character that was unique itself.

In our 22 episodes, Eric Draven’s mission grew from simply wanting to murder the people who murdered both he and his girlfriend.  He began to climb… that’s right… a Stairway to Heaven.

Although the concept of the Crow had history when I came aboard, this shift was no small challenge.  The comicbooks by James O’Barr which started it all were intensely violent, bloodsoaked revenge fantasies.  Pretty cool in their own right, but impossible to sell to a mass TV audience. The films, brought to life by several different writers and directors, were dark, brooding mood pieces, also saturated by the blood of sadistic, drug-abusing, violent scumbags. An equally difficult sell. Yet the films built upon the comics, changed the mythology to adapt to a new medium, and grew the premise in the process.  That was the only way to go.

So the TV series had to become its own manifestation of the Crow. It, too, had to grow the mythology, and adapt to its own medium. At first, a lot of fans who came to the concept by way of the comics and the movies were taken aback. They felt it was not true to the spirit of O’Barr’s creation or the performance of Brandon Lee.  Yet we knew that even if every person who read a comic or saw the movie tuned into the series, it would still be cancelled. We had to bring new people in.

We did. We brought in women by making it a series with a love story as its central premise –- a love that survived even death. That started with our opening titles where we used the famous lines from the Crow movie (delivered only by Eric) about the "soul can't rest" and re-wrote it as a poem between Eric Draven and Shelly. This was my first draft:

WE HEAR two voices – Eric Draven and Shelly Webster.

SHELLY (V.O.)
People once believed that when someone dies, a Crow carries their soul to the Land of the Dead…

DRAVEN (V.O.)
But sometimes something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest…

SHELLY (V.O.)
Then sometimes, just sometimes, the Crow can bring the soul back to put things right…

DRAVEN (V.O.)
Things can never be right, my soul will never rest, until we are together again. 

We brought in others who found our new Crow’s mission to be more hopeful than the films and, therefore, more accessible to their lives.  We cast as our lead the incredibly talented Mark Dacascos whose performance gave the Eric Draven character an entirely new dimension of sympathy and whose martial arts skills were crackling and theatrical.  We wrote stories as smart as we could, expanding the mythology to include such twists as Draven being a suspect in his own murder to making literal the previously only mentioned Land of the Dead.  Basically, we tried not to pander to the audience, but to challenge them upward.

By the way, if you'd like to read the pilot script,  here it is:

THE CROW, PILOT EPISODE.pdf

If you'd like to read the series bible created before we went on the air (and, thus, something that changed), here it is:

THE CROW, Original Bible.pdf

Finally, if you'd like to read the episode summaries of the first season storylines, you can do that, too. I kept this document up-to-date throughout that season so that other writers could see where we'd been and it kept everybody "on the same page" as it were. This is definite SPOILER ALERT territory, however.

THE CROW, Episode Summaries, Season One.pdf

A number of people should be mentioned as having been part of this process. Ed Pressman and Jeff Most are the keepers of the Crow flame, especially in the feature world. Bob Sanitsky and Stephen Gelber were the Polygram execs who were smart enough to get us up and running, then support us creatively. The production wouldn’t have happened without Gregg Fienberg who came in as Polygram’s man on the ground, but quickly became my doppelganger, seeing my vision with me, and making it happen. Gordon Mark and Brad Markowitz took it from the page to the stage. The other staff writers and producers were Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes, Naomi Jantzen, John Turman and David Ransil. A great team.

It all worked. The show found its rhythm. Although the action was always intense by virtue of Mark’s fighting talents, some of the most heartfelt scenes I’ve ever written or re-written are in this series. It worked, and it was good. By the end of the season, we had a real friendship formed between Eric Draven and Detective Daryl Albrecht (played to awesome perfection by Marc Gomes) and Sarah (played so well by Katie Stuart).

The ratings were great by syndication levels (2.7 and above). Then Polygram was purchased by Universal, and it all fell apart. Universal, you see, wanted Polygram’s music division but, having gotten out of the TV business only the year before, had no desire to nurture a new series in the tough syndication market. It was just business. The show died.

Maybe, like Eric Draven, the show will come back to life some day. I’d like that. Maybe the fact that the underlying rights are now owned by NBC-Universal (which also owns the Sci-Fi Channel) will mean something. At the very least, I'd like it if this DVD release could spark the fire that would allow me to wrap up our Eric Draven arc with a film or a limited series, using Mark Dacascos. Then, maybe, Eric Draven really could rest in peace. Anyway, as the Crow flies...

Comments

[Frank]

http://www.hartsharpvideo.com/catalog/actionSuspense/THECROW.php

I can't wait to read your write up for the back cover.

[Frank]

Hopefully you guys haven't recorded your commentary yet.

Some topics you guys could cover are

Funny stories behind the scenes like one of the crows chewing on Mark’s wig or him getting booed while singing
Mark Dacascos on working with Gomes and Stuart.
Mark learning to play guitar
Writing for the show, like what were the meetings like?
Mark Dacascos on playing Eric Draven and the challenges associated with the role

[Frank]

Bryce im going to beat you to the punch. Amazon has it up for pre order. Release date is July 24, 2007 according to Amazon.

[Brett]

I can't wait to see this long awaited tv show finally be released on dvd. I am a huge crow fan and have hoped to see this tv show one day hit dvd and that day has finally arrived. I hope to hear that the songs from the show are somehow put on a cd maybe included with the dvd set. Seeing as how the soundtrack was never publicly released, I think it would be a huge plus to the fans to be able to finally have the soundtrack on cd along with the dvd set. but I am so looking forward to the dvd release of the show as being a crow fan and a fan of mark's many movies. I hope all the extras are also included in the dvd as well.

[raven]

I'm a big fan of Mark from Japan.
I am very glad to hear that DVD is released.
I live in Japan, but buy it by all means.
So...when you could attach the English subtitle it is very merciful.
Pleeeaaaaseeee....

[Ryan Corven]

Excellent news! I already have the European A-Film distribution of the series (which was decent enough), but I'm a sucker for bonus features and commentaries.

In an ideal world you could track down JP Ferguson and Katie Stuart for some bonus feature-related antics, seeing as I was already a big fan of them both prior to the show. As for everything else, a big ditto on Frank's suggestions.

[LLcruize]

Bryce, "ditto" on everything Frank posted as far as wish-list items. Would really like to see a 5.1 release, but understand that may not be an option. The commentary is a definite gold item, can't wait to hear that. The music bit that Frank mentions is a definite highlight item I would like to see on the release. Music was very important in this series, as it should have been, would be great to see something that looks back on that. I do like the cover art, though agree the TVGuide symbol is a bit distracting, but I realize that may be a neccessary evil.

I can't wait for this to come out. I am VERY glad that you are highly involved with this. I was afraid we would get a barebones, weak release. I can see this being one of my DVD highlights of the year now!

[Angela]

I am so happy to see this DVD will be available this year. I never got to see the show when it was on TV, but now I will finally get to watch it!

[mary brewer]

Hi,
I am so happy to see that the dvd's are finally coming out. A
lot of Mark Dacascos fans have been waiting a long time for this to happen. Bloopers are great... Getting Mark's and Sabine's opinion on "the crow taking the soul to heaven"
belief would be interesting. behind the scenes pictures, video, still pictures are always a crowd pleaser Would love
to hear Mark's opinion on reprising the role of Eric if that
were ever possible.. Would love to see what Katie looks like
now..She has to be all grown up and how she like working with
Mark..Her and Mark made such a great match-up on the show.. I
loved the chemistry between them.. Mary

[Anne]

Bryce - that is incredibly good news!
I was grinding my teeth over all of your goodies not being included in this release - and now they will!
Some of them, at least.

Thanks SO much for making this happen.

Bloopers are always a big favorite as well as deleted scenes.
Mark's screen test sounds like a great idea.
Or 'Dr. Love' aka Marc Gomes'?
Or Christina Cox?
Maybe some stunt preparations - 'Anatomy of a stunt'.
Mark's rehearsal for his singing and playing guitar.

I guess the birds are dead by now, but stories about working with them - or maybe they are included with the bloopers?

[Frank]

Well I'd like to see a 5.1 audio mix for the episodes. I know we won't see the episodes in widescreen, as the show was probably not filmed in widescreen or in high definition, as that was not a standard in 98/99. The show doesn’t look that bad on my widescreen TV though, I was able to play the Australian DVD set thanks to some hacked firmware for my DVD recorder that’s hooked up to my TV.

Are they going to use the music that was featured on the show, or not include it for cost reasons? So you and Mark will be doing the audio commentary for The Soul Can’t Rest and Souled Out episodes right?

Far as special features go

* A behind the scenes documentary with Bryce Zabel, Sabine Karsenti, Mark Dacascos, Marc Gomes, Katie Stuart, and other important staff members

* The infamous gag reel that I’ve heard a lot about to include the ladies booing Mark

* A behind the music feature since music played such a big part in the movies and TV series with comments from Peter Manning Robinson, Cherish Alexander of The Painkillers, and maybe some comments from the people who were known as Hangman’s Joke of the show.

* A feature on the controversies surrounding the TV series such as the columbine incident, and the cancellation of the show, and maybe the fan reactions to the show using the Eric Draven character.

* Deleted Scenes
* Episode Trailers/Radio Spots

DVD-ROM Features

* Web Links
* Script Viewer
* A log of the chat you did with CrowFans.com if they want to use it, just because you answered a lot of questions.
* I’d like to see the enhanced playback track that was used as special feature on the first movie.
* MP3’s of the TV series soundtrack (Peter Manning Robinson/Hangman’s Joke) if Universal doesn’t have any plans for releasing those songs onto a CD to be included with the box set or on ITunes.

Far as the cover goes to be honest I don’t like it. Seems like that image was airbrushed horribly too. I really don’t like the big TV guide image, but I doubt they’ll do anything about that. Maybe a banner at the top for TV guide would be better.

As soon as I get more information about the TV series set, I’ll gladly dedicate an entire section on CrowFans.com for it as I did at one time for The Crow DVD box Set. Bryce if the people behind the box set have anything they’d like to pass on to me, or if they need any help with it from me, please feel free to pass along to them my contact info.