This is what The Crow reboot with Brad Cooper was supposed to look like

You may remember last April when Relativity Media was negotiating with Bradley Cooper to star in a “reboot” of The Crow, which was somehow going to reinvent the franchise by being darker and grittierâ„¢ than the original, despite starring a guy who looks like he just fell off a sailboat in Connecticut. Cooper dropped out (supposedly, they actually wanted C-Tates or Mark Wahlberg to replace him) and the project has been on hold ever since, possibly because the guy whose idea it was managed to poke his eye out with safety scissors.

But now some concept art from the film that was to be has leaked out, and I have to say, I’m sorry I ever doubted this project. I had no idea that “dark and gritty” was going to mean “a top hat with a skull on it.” Suddenly, all my reservations have disappeared. It’s like if you tell me you’re going to take a ’69 Mustang and make it more extreme, I probably wouldn’t believe you, because it’s already so extreme. But then if you drive up in that same car and it has flames painted on it? I’d probably be all, “Whoa, dude, that is pretty extreme.”

The real victim in all of this is the Steampunk Hatter, and all of the business they’re going to lose.

[From Diego Latorre, via ShockTillYouDrop]