The Crow reboot director Rupert Sanders banned guns on set due to the incidents involving weapons on the set of the original 1994 film and the 2021 Western Rust.
While filming the 1994 movie, Lee – who played protagonist Eric Draven – was tragically killed during an accident on set as a bullet got stuck in a prop gun that misfired and shot into Lee’s stomach.
A similar tragedy occurred in 2021 when a prop gun held by Alec Baldwin fired a live bullet that killed Halyna Hutchins and seriously injured director Joel Souza. Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter over the incident before a judge dismissed the case on July 12.
Explaining the precaution, Sanders told Variety: “Safety is a number one priority. Film sets are very dangerous. There are fast moving cars with cranes stuck on the top. There are stunt guys falling on high wires down steps. Even just walking around a set at night with rain machines and lights — you’re working in an industrial environment. So it’s dangerous. You have to be safe.
“The first day I met with the special effects department and the armorer, who was great, in Prague. They were very safety-conscious. They follow all the same guidelines as the military when dealing with weapons, but I didn’t even want to risk that.”
He continued: “So I said, categorically, ‘We will have no firing weapons on set,’ which means we didn’t have one gun that could have had a live round or a blank round anywhere near it ever, so that no projectile could go in,” he continued. “They’re all Airsoft guns, and some of them are just rubber or metal decoys that are functional but have no firing mechanism.
“The beauty of the Airsoft is that the slide on a Glock will still move back, but then you have to add the shell casing,” the filmmaker continued. “You have to add a muzzle flash and smoke, but that was a price worth paying. It took a fair bit of money out of my very limited visual effects budget, but I think it was worth it.
“The visual effects on this movie were very much in-camera. We were mainly a location shoot with set extension. So you have to balance where you spend the money when you don’t have a massive budget to do visual effects. But to me, that was a very worthwhile spend for everyone’s safety and comfort going into this project.”
The incident on the Rust set prompted many high-profile actors and directors to make pledges to stop using real guns on film sets.
The reboot of The Crow is coming to cinemas on Friday (August 23). It stars Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs as Eric Draven and his girlfriend Shelly, who are both unceremoniously killed. Skarsgård is then resurrected and goes on a gory and brutal, vengeful rampage against those who wronged him.