Brandon Lee’s family offers support after Halyna Hutchins’ death
Halyna Hutchins died in a gunshot accident on the film set, tragically reminiscent of Brandon Lee’s death in 1993 while filming “The Crow.”
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Before Bill Skarsgård donned Eric Draven’s ominous black-and-white face paint, up-and-coming Brandon Lee embodied the resurrected superhero at the center of James O’Barr’s comic.
1994’s “The Crow” could easily have been Lee’s breakthrough. Lee was just 8 years old when his father, action star Bruce Lee, died of brain swelling. In his review, critic Roger Ebert called the film “a bigger success on the screen than any of his father’s other films.”
Rupert Sanders, who directed the remake, which was released in theaters Friday, praised Lee’s performance in an interview with USA TODAY: “He’s very, very good in the movie and he has a kind of lifelessness about him that is really powerful.”
Filming began on February 1, 1993, the day the actor turned 28. Lee played a rock star who rises from his grave to seek revenge after he and his fiancée are mercilessly murdered. Lee had planned to marry his personal assistant Eliza Hutton in Mexico on April 17 after filming wrapped in Wilmington, North Carolina. But on March 31, Lee was killed in an accidental gunshot while filming a scene in which his character dies.
Before the new “Crow” we take another look at the tragedy of the original.
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How did Brandon Lee die on the set of The Crow?
In the moment described in the script, which is not seen in the finished film, Eric is shot by the bully Funboy (Michael Massee). While the cameras were rolling, Lee was shot in the stomach, leaving a piece of a blank cartridge from an earlier scene stuck in the barrel of the gun.
The .44 Magnum was loaded with blanks that a crewman had hastily made by removing gunpowder from live bullets. The blank fired the fragment with the force of a real bullet, hitting Lee from about 15 feet away.
The actor suffered severe internal injuries and significant blood loss. He died after hours of surgery at New Hanover Regional Medical Center.
No charges were filed in Lee’s death, but the actor’s mother, Linda Lee Cadwell, filed a negligence lawsuit suing the producers and 13 other companies and individuals. The suit, which also involved Hutton, was settled for an undisclosed amount.
How did the filmmakers finish “The Crow” after Brandon Lee’s death?
The film was completed with the help of special effects company Dream Quest Images and stunt performer Chad Stahelski, who later directed the four John Wick films.
A few months after filming, stunt coordinator Jeff Imada called Stahelski, a friend of Lee’s, and asked if he would help finish The Crow. Stahelski flew out to meet with director Alex Proyas and review footage of Lee.
“The next two days it was just (Alex) and I in a room, teaching me how to walk and talk, showing me the footage and saying, ‘This is what I need from you,'” Stahelski told Yahoo Movies UK in 2019. “To this day, I believe Brandon would have wanted the thing done, and done well, and today it’s still a cult classic, it’s still one of my favorite films.”
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Director Rupert Sanders insisted on not using sharp weapons in the remake of “The Crow”
Speaking to USA TODAY, Sanders stressed the importance of safety on his sets.
“We work in a very dangerous environment,” says Sanders. “There’s always a fast car with a crane attached, or a horse galloping at high speed, or you’re filming takeoffs on the USS Roosevelt. You’re always in the line of fire, but for me, safety comes first. It’s just not worth the risk.”
“One of the things I was very strict about on the first day at the gunsmith was that no sharp weapons were to be used,” says Sanders. He insisted on airsoft guns, which look like real guns but are fired with compressed air.
Sanders “didn’t want a single blank on set. So we shot everything digitally and I don’t think it changes the dynamic of the performance in the film. If anything, blanks don’t react the same way as live ammunition anyway, so it’s a little artificial. Through (visual effects) you can actually achieve a more realistic approach.”
Contributors: Patrick Ryan and Maria Puente
