The filmmakers behind The Crow reboot have decided on a radical—and awesome—change to the original story. They’re rewriting the villain Top Dollar as a woman.
Deadline reports that Andrea Riseborough (Birdman) is in talks to play Top Dollar, a gang boss who was played by Michael Wincott in the 1994 movie. She will be the first lead female villain in a superhero movie since Sharon Stone in Catwoman, a decision that may liven up the surprisingly conservative premise of The Crow: A man violently avenging the death of his girlfriend.
People have been trying to reboot or remake The Crow since the late ’90s, to the point where it’s become a textbook example of a franchise stuck in Development Hell. However, we’re beginning to feel tentatively optimistic about the latest attempt, which now has a director and a lead actor onboard, and will supposedly start filming this year.
While there are a fair few sci-fi movies with female villains, the superhero genre has lagged behind due to the small number of iconic female supervillains in classic comics. Genderswapping a male villain could be a refreshing solution, in a similar vein to Aquaman and Fantastic Four casting actors of color as characters who used to be white.
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