HOW CROW FLEW WEEKS AFTER BRANDON LEE'S DEATH, HIS COLLEAGUES
REUNITED TO EASE THEIR GRIEF AND FINISH THEIR WORK 

   "As an actor, Brandon wanted to be Mel Gibson." -Edward R.
Pressman, coproducer of The Crow.
   The night Brandon Lee was rushed hemorrhaging to the New Hanover
Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, N.C., The Crow's stunned cast
and crew gathered at the hospital to wait. They waited for Brandon's
fiancee, Eliza Hutton, and his mother, Linda Lee Cadwell, who were
flying in from Los Angeles. They waited for news about Brandon. They
waited to hear what to do next.
   The Crow had been shooting mainly at Carolco Studios in North
Carolina for three months, usually at night, and frequently in a
downpour jetted by rain machines. The surreal thriller, based on
James O'Barr's comic book about a rock musician who comes back from
the dead to avenge his and his fiancee's murders, offered Lee the
starring role he had dreamed of-a part that would finally make him 
a leading man and distinguish him from his late father, martial-arts
legend Bruce Lee.
   In the early afternoon of March 31, 1993, about 12 hours after
being hit by a bullet from an improperly loaded stunt gun, Lee died.
The producers, who had scheduled three more days of filming with him,
temporarily halted production and within hours began to face an
agonizing choice: Should they finish the film or shelve it?
   While they were coming to a decision, a  traumatized Sofia Shinas,
who played Brandon's fiancee, Shelly, fled to her L.A. home. "I was
on the soundstage when it happened, and my agent wanted me out," she
says. "I was an emotional wreck." The rest of the cast and crew-with
the exception of costar Ernie Hudson, who had returned to California
days earlier when his brother-in- law died unexpectedly-stayed in
Wilmington, dodging journalists and replaying Lee's death in their
minds. Two days later, coproducer Ed Pressman called them together 
on an empty soundstage at Carolco.
   Pressman told the group that the filmmakers intended to continue
the movie- a decision that would add $8 million to the $15 million
budget. "It was never technically (questioned) if we could complete
it-it was always evident that Brandon's role was basically done," 
he says. "The issue was psychological." Recalls coproducer Jeff Most,
"It was only through Eliza's great dedication to Brandon that we
pushed on.... She knew how important this was to him, and that it
would have been his wish to complete it." ("All she did was agree 
to have them complete the film," says a source close to Hutton, who
has declined to speak to the press. "Instinctively, she would have
preferred not to deal with it at all.")
   Alex Proyas, 33, an Australian music-video director making his
U.S. feature debut with The Crow, was perhaps the hardest to
persuade. "He was extremely close to Brandon," Most says, "and the
nightmare was weighing on him.  (He wanted) a psychological rest of
however long he needed." Within a day, Proyas agreed to Pressman's
proposal of an indefinite period of bereavement. And despite the
crew's mixed feelings, "they said, 'You tell us a date and a time,
and we'll be here,'" Most recalls.
   "Before we went to Wilmington, Brandon was so pleased. I remember
him saying, 'You know, whatever happens with this project, nothing 
is as important to me as the fact that I am playing Eric Draven. This 
is my finest character.'" -Jeff Most
   One month later, Proyas flew from Australia, where he'd gone just
after Lee's death, to L.A., where with Pressman's help he began
rewriting David Schow and John Shirley's script. (Of the decision 
not to bring in the original writers, Most says, "We sought to bring
another viewpoint to the project.") In the revised script, Proyas
would have to make up for Lee's unshot scenes, most of which were
intended to show Eric and Shelly's passion for each other and more
fully explain the motive for Eric's back-from-the-dead revenge.
   Six weeks after Lee's death, Pressman placed calls to the cast 
and crew members, telling them to meet in Wilmington on May 26 to
begin the work of completing the film.
   The Crow's cast and crew had spent their time off bracing
themselves for the return to North Carolina. "I didn't want to go
back and finish it," says   Hudson, who plays a policeman who comes
to the ghostly Eric's aid. "There was a part of me that said, 'Yeah,
right, this is for Brandon.' No, it's because you've got so much
money put into this thing, and you need to make some money out of 
it.
 But then I got a call from Lance (Anderson, who did Lee's makeup),
and he felt we should do it for Brandon, because Brandon had worked
very hard."
   "I was very close to Brandon, and I felt completing the film would
be closing the loop," Anderson, 55, says. "I have a son exactly his
age (Lee was 28 when he died), and I related to him like a father. 
So the time at home made me feel even stronger about going back to
finish." Shinas returned only  because she was contractually obliged.
"What happened on that stage truly gives new meaning to the word
tragedy. I really didn't want to go back," she says, her voice
shaking.
   "(While doing Brandon's makeup) I had to keep low-key, because 
if I started talking, it would set Brandon off on a story, and we would
be in for an extra half hour of makeup. He loved Game Boy-he was
addicted to it. I'd be painting these delicate lines on his face, 
and he'd hit a point on the game, and it would be time for a cleanup
job." -Lance Anderson
   When the cast and crew reconvened in Wilmington, Proyas presented
them with an emotionally softened, reworked script. Many of Lee's
half-completed scenes were reconceived as silent montages. The
relationship between Hudson's character and Sarah, Draven's young
friend, played by Rochelle Davis, was deepened by adding exchanges
between the two. Finally, the Skull Cowboy, a dark character who
taunts Draven with the rules of the dead, was replaced by Sarah's
tender narration. Her words at the start of the film echo the
filmmakers' emotions about finishing the project: "Sometimes,
something so bad happens," she says of the creature that guides the
dead through the land of the living, "that the Crow can bring that
soul back to put the wrong things right."
   But rewrites alone couldn't put the movie on track. For several
unfilmed scenes in which Lee's character was essential, stunt
coordinator Jeff Imada, 38, brought in stuntman Chad Stahelski as
Lee's body double. Stahelski had trained with Lee at L.A.'s Inosanto
Academy, a martial-arts school run by Dan Inosanto, who once worked
as Bruce Lee's sparring partner. "Chad knew how Brandon moved," Imada
says. Stahelski shared duties with Jeff Cadiente, who   had been
Lee's stunt double throughout the film, and replaced him for scenes
that required someone who looked more like Lee.
   Originally, Stahelski and Cadiente were to have worn foam-rubber
life masks cast from Lee's face before the film started production,
but "no one felt good about it," says Anderson. Instead, almost all
the scenes using doubles were designed as long shots: "You can't see
stuntmen's faces from a distance, anyway." For example, one sequence
early in the completed film shows Draven having flashbacks as he
walks through his apartment; Stahelski was actually used for some 
of these shots.
   "He had a boyish enthusiasm, but he was very focused.  He would
always go the extra mile. We could be at the end of a long day, with
a lot of rain machines going, and everyone would be happy with the
shot. He could have gone (home) and chilled out, but Brandon would
cock his head and call out to Alex, 'What if we did it this way?'"
-Robert Zuckerman, The Crow's still photographer
   "In a way, the film became about something different," says a
source close to the production. "It became about how you deal with
grief. What happens when someone you love is taken from you? How do
you incorporate that into your life?"
   The cast and crew pondered the same questions during the two-week
final shoot. "There was no rushing or hurrying," Anderson recalls.
"There was a calmness on the set that hadn't been there before (and)
plenty of time to get everything done correctly." Pressman agrees:
"There was a feeling after the accident that became heightened-a
sense of purpose, a common feeling of shared grief, a
responsibility."
   While a grief counselor was made available to cast and crew, it
took fierce determination to get them through the most difficult
task: returning to the soundstage where the accident had occurred,
to film Draven and Shelly's murder scene. "It was strange," says
Anderson. "After we finished the scene, we all got kind of drunk. 
We had tried to pretend it didn't matter, and it didn't affect us. Then
we let our hair down and hugged each other." Hudson, who was battling
rage over the fact that "it just should never have happened," says,
"The funny thing is, sometimes out of tragedy, you get an
appreciation of each other."
   "He was one of the nicest people. The only thing I didn't like
about him was he didn't like dogs. He hated them because he said they
always bit him. Me and my mom told him we were going to get him a dog
for his wedding, and he said he'd wok it." -Rochelle Davis, 13, who plays
Sarah.
   The Crow finished production June 28 and found itself without a
distributor after Paramount decided not to pick it up. "Viacom and
QVC had announced that they were seeking control of Paramount," says
Most, "and Paramount felt that at a time when the stock price moving
up or down a point could be damaging, it was touchy to be dealing
with a film so mired in difficult press coverage." When the
filmmakers told Paramount The Crow would be two months late, says
Most, "that opened the door for them to walk away." After shopping
the film to different studios, they found a distributor in Miramax,
who bought U.S. rights in March. It opens in New York and L.A. on 
May 11; two days later it will open on 1,000 screens, the company's
widest release ever. While the studio is wholeheartedly promoting 
the film, those involved with its making are more ambivalent. There
have been no cast screenings; Shinas, for one, has no plans to see
the film. "It would be too difficult," she says.
   As The Crow's opening approaches, the involvement of Lee's
survivors with its release is somewhat in dispute. (Last October,
Lee's mother agreed to an out-of-court settlement of a negligence
suit she filed against Edward R. Pressman Film Corp. and 13 other
defendants.) While Pressman claims Hutton is "very proud" of the
film, a source close to her says she "never said she was pleased.
Basically, she (told Pressman) she was unable to look at the film
objectively." And although Pressman submitted much of the film's
advertising and marketing material to her, "she was never consulted
in the sense of collaboration," says the source.
   And while both parties want part of the film's revenues to go to 
a charity in Lee's name, the recipient is undecided: The producers
favor a fund for inner-city children, while Hutton would prefer a
safety-related cause. Donations will also come from a catalog
designed to sell more than 35 items of Crow memorabilia. The catalog
can be ordered through a 900 number, which will automatically enroll
callers in The Crow Club, guaranteeing them future Crow- related
mailings. (The filmmakers are already discussing a sequel, based on
O'Barr's next Crow installment, which he will begin in the fall.)
   "When he filmed the sequence coming out of the grave, (it) was 
5 degrees. They had to put alcohol in the rain machines to keep the
liquid from freezing, and ( all Brandon had on were his pants. But 
he did the scene over and over until he got it exactly as he wanted it.
He was a hell of a trouper." -James O'Barr, creator of The Crow comic
book.
   So far, cast and crew members who have seen the film believe that
completing it was the right decision. With the movie's release, a
soundtrack featuring Nine Inch Nails and the Cure, and a book
containing unit photographer Zuckerman's work and essays by Proyas
and O'Barr, they are focused on the result of their-and
Lee's-efforts. "I think Brandon would have been very, very proud of
the movie. He is so good in this," says Hudson. "All of the
(qualities) he had as a person come through."
   Ironically, The Crow may be a better movie for the suffering those
who completed it endured. In fact, many of them feel that the movie
being released is more balanced and gentler than the one they set 
out to make (despite no fewer than 30 bloody murders in the film).
Before Brandon's death, says Hudson, "I thought the movie was sort
of dark. It turned out to be a really nice, beautiful love story."
   It is also a haunting memorial to its star. Pressman hopes that
ultimately Lee's death will become "less interesting than the movie
itself. The point is not to remind people of the tragedy." That seems
unlikely: Any audience will have trouble separating Lee's fate from
that of his character. But lest anyone forget what was lost, there 
is a final, unmistakable reminder in the simple dedication at the
movie's end: "For Brandon and Eliza."

   "The night prior to the accident I asked him what he was working
on next. He said, 'Getting married.'" -Sofia Shinas

Entertainment Weekly
Copyright 1994 Time Inc.