Is James McAvoy The New Crow?

Relativity's reboot of James O'Barr's The Crow has been thrashing around in development for ages now. Last we heard, a year or so ago, attached star Bradley Cooper and director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo had both left the project. The Crow refuses to stay dead, however, and word this morning is that James McAvoy is in talks to wear the leathers and the corpse paint. F. Javier Gutierrez is the man currently in the director's chair.

We are slightly dubious about this news, since BD seem disinclined to talk about any sort of source for their scoop. But they point out that they previously correctly announced Mark Wahlberg's brief involvement, so maybe they have a secret insider source. McAvoy seems like an odd choice, but we wouldn't necessarily have pegged him for Professor Xavier either, and look how well that worked out.

This new Crow was kickstarted by Stephen Norrington in 2009, with the Blade director planning to shoot his own screenplay, which would take place in Detroit and the American south-west. Nick Cave then wrote a draft in 2010, before Norrington walked over the usual creative differences with the studio. Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) signed on in early 2011, beating Gutierrez (Before The Fall) to the gig, but when Fresnadillo moved on later the same year, Gutierrez was back in the game.

Channing Tatum's name was bandied around for the lead role after Wahlberg and Cooper had gone, so we'll see whether McAvoy lasts any longer, or even gets beyond the "talks" stage. It sounds as if we still won't see the new Crow anytime especially soon, but if you're feeling Draven cravings, Titan published a swish new expanded edition of O'Barr's original graphic novel last year. We'll next see McAvoy in Danny Boyle's Trance (March 27) and Eran Creevy's Welcome To The Punch (March 15) - but if you're in London, he's appearing in Macbeth onstage nightly.