THE CROW: New Book Lays Out the Series of Misteps That Led to Brandon Lee's Shocking and Tragic Death
In 1993, Brandon Lee was tragically killed while shooting a scene for director Alex Proyas’ The Crow. The some of the details of how this happened were already publicly known, but a new memoir has outlined the series of mistakes that were made that led to the shocking accident. There is new information here that was uncovered by director Dwight H. Little, who wrote the book, which is titled Still Rolling: Inside the Hollywood Dream Factory.
One of the chapters of that book focuses on what happened the day Lee died and it’s pretty unbelievable all of the things and oversights that had to happen for this terrible accident to happen. Thanks to JoBlo, we have excerpts from the chapter to share with you and the details will make you shake your head in disbelief.
The book says:
“The tragedy was so eerie with the death of his father, also at such a young age. I went to the memorial service where Melissa Etheridge sang ‘Ain’t It Heavy.’ On top of everything else, Brandon was engaged to be married. … All these years later, these are the ‘facts’ that I have been able to gather, though I’m not sure I have the full story.
“The night before the accident, the second unit was doing some shots on a different set from the main unit. There was a big (close-up) shot looking up the barrel of a gun. The camera people were worried that the barrel might seem to be empty, so a ‘slug’ or ‘dummy bullet’ of some kind was put into the barrel to keep light from getting through. When the second unit wrapped, the gun was put away for the night. No one remembered to take out the slug. When the first unit needed the gun the next day, it was taken out and a blank charge was put in for a set-up. No one from the first unit crew knew that the slug had been put in the night before and no one checked. When the actor aimed the gun at Brandon, the blank went off and the slug discharged. The slug hit Brandon in a main artery in his abdomen and he lost consciousness almost immediately.
“Two things. One, the prop man or AD always looks down the barrel of the gun to see that it is clear. (The prop man is obliged to show the director that the gun barrel is empty.) Two, the actor with the gun is instructed to never aim the gun at the other actor directly. The shot is always supposed to be ‘off angle’ and the lens and composition makes it ‘look like’ the gun is aimed properly. How all these mistakes could have been made in succession is almost impossible to imagine. The odds of Brandon being shot and killed by this forgotten slug were so long that of course the speculation about a ‘curse’ began.“
It’s seriously hard to comprehend how all of these missteps happened in succession that allowed that slug into the gun and then was never removed.
A remake of The Crow is currently in development thanks to Lionsgate, and a lot of fans are not happy about it. Even director Alex Proyas has criticized the remake and believes that it shouldn’t be made because he wants The Crow to “remain Brandon’s film.”