Bill Skarsgard to star in the reboot of “The Raven”

The Raven will finally mark its return to the big screen and will feature a modern horror star as its protagonist: Bill Skarsgard. The Swedish actor gave life to the fearsome clown Pennywise in the two installments of the film adaptation of It, and now he will be the main face of this supernatural reboot directed by Rupert Sanders, the filmmaker behind the criticised Hollywood version of Ghost in the Shell.

The film will be based on the dark comic book created by James O'Barr in the late 1980s. The story begins with a man and his fiancée stranded, after their car breaks down. Without receiving a help, the couple is surprised by a gang and both are killed in cold blood. The subject is reborn like a raven and vows to take revenge against those who took his life and the love of his life.

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Skarsgard will play the role of Eric Draven, the character who stars in this story of revenge. The direction will fall to Sanders, and Zach Baylin — nominated for an Oscar for King Richard: a winning family — will write the screenplay. Filming will begin in June this year and will take place in Prague and Munich with a budget of $50 million.

Released in 1994, the first adaptation of El cuervo is considered a classic and one of the most tragic stories in cinema. Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, played the title role and died on set during filming due to the impact of an 11 mm caliber bullet instead of a blank cartridge, due to the fact that real cartridges were purchased due to the lack of financial resources in production. He was only 28 years old at the time.

A few years later, in 1996, the sequel The Raven: City of Angels starring Vicent Perez was released, followed by two other films, The Raven III (2000) and El Cuervo 4: The Cursed Prayer (2005), the latter with performances by Eric Mabius and Edward Furlong. However, none of these titles managed to match Lee's original film. For 17 years, no project that returned the comic strip to live-action has been realized again.

Over the past decade, filmmakers Stephen Norrington and F. Javier Gutiérrez tried to float a separate reboot, although it was not possible. Corin Hardy later took the lead on the project in 2017 and it was revealed that Jason Momoa would be the protagonist, but both ended up abandoning it the following year due to budget problems between the producers and the distribution company.

Bill Skarsgard, de Pennywise a protagonista de El cuervo

Swedish actor and model Bill Skarsgard (31) comes from a family of actors. His father, Stellan Skarsgard, has a long career in Hollywood, and his brothers, Alexander, Gustaf, Valter, followed in his footsteps just like him. Bill made his acting debut at age 19 with Järngänget (2000) and later made his way to the big screen with Anna Karenina, The Divergent Series: Allegiant, Atomic Blonde and his most remembered role today is as Pennywise, the terrifying antagonist of It.

On television, he had starring roles in the series Hemlock Grove, which aired between 2013 and 2015, and in the miniseries Castle Rock (also based on Stephen King's universe). Soon, he will star for Netflix in the fiction Clark, centered on a Swedish criminal who originated the famous term Stockholm Syndrome, after committing crimes across the country and executing the Norrmalmstorg robbery. It was also recently announced that he will further expand his filmography with the lead in the reboot of El cuervo.

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