Last week, Relativity Media announced big news on The Crow – which just found a new director and writer in F. Javier Gutierrez and Jesse Wigutow – and Timeless, an action-drama starring Liam Hemsworth and directed by Phillip Noyce.  Now, the distributor has kicked off a new week with big news.  Relativity is teaming up with Hasbro to create a Stretch Armstrong feature film based on the squishy elastic action figure first produced in 1976.

Twenty-three years ago, while comic book luminaries like Frank Miller, Alan Moore, and Neil Gaiman were proving that graphic novels could no longer be dismissed as childish wish fulfillment, James O'Barr's revenge tale The Crow amassed a cult following for its dark, sophisticated storytelling.  In 1994, a film version from director Alex Proyas showed that films based on graphic novels could be just as grown-up, visually arresting, and dramatically striking.

Now, with an audience infinitely more versed in the conventions of comic books, O'Barr's original material is set to once again provide a template for a shift in comic book moviemaking.  The Crow, a new feature from Relativity Media and Dimension Films, will re-imagine the story of Eric Draven from a more contemporary, grittier perspective.  Today, Relativity announced that a director and writer have been chosen to bring this new vision to the screen, as F. Javier Gutierrez and Jesse Wigutow have both signed on the project.

Because of the franchise's staggering commercial success and permeation into damn near every nook and cranny of popular culture, the Twilight series is the flagship endeavor of Summit Entertainment.  With only the two separate halves of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn left to continue milking that particular cash cow, though, Summit has to look to other potential franchises for financial sustenance.  A rebooted Highlander series is currently a high priority for the studio, which has been in search of a director to helm the remade adventures of the conspicuously immortal Connor MacLeod.  It would seem that Summit has found its man, as Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is currently in discussions to direct Highlander.

When Relativity Media first announced that Oscar-nominated director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo would helm the re-imagining of The Crow, no writer was attached. Still, it was clear that the Spanish director would work very closely with a screenwriter in crafting the new adaptation of James O’Barr’s supernatural comic book. Now, with Bradley Cooper attached to star as Eric Draven, Relativity has announced a writer for The Crow. Alex Tse, who contributed to the screenplay for Watchmen, is collaborating with Fresnadillo to tell the story of Draven’s revenge by resurrection.

Relativity Media has announced that Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is the choice to direct a re-imagining of The Crow, the 1994 gothic actioner starring Brandon Lee.  Fresnadillo helmed the 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later, and will give the new adaptation of James O. Barr's comic book a tone and style very different from the version directed by Alex Proyas.  The film, about a man who returns from the dead with supernatural powers and sets out to avenge the murders of himself and his beloved wife, is scheduled to begin production this fall.