Lionsgate ‘s new adaptation of “The Crow,” James O’Barr’s graphic novel about a man resurrected from the dead to seek revenge against his murderers, is generous in its supply of satisfyingly violent set pieces. None are more impressive, however, than a killing spree set in an opera house, where The Crow (Bill Skarsgård) slices and dices his way through an army of henchmen on his way into the auditorium. The choreography of the fighting dovetails with the performance of “Robert le diable” to create a sequence as lyrical as it is gory — which is just as director Rupert Sanders and stunt coordinator Adam Horton intended.
“Our initial approach was all about the musicality of the sequence,” Horton told IndieWire, adding that it was important that the action express the Skarsgård character’s emotions in the same way that the opera on stage conveyed the inner states of its characters. “The emotions he had gone through formed our base for what he was feeling during that fight sequence. It’s important that it not be just a fight.
What pain is he fighting through?” According to Horton, choreographing the action to “Robert le diable” — performed by Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Chœur de l’Opéra National de Bordeaux, conductor Marc Minkowski, and stars John Osborn and Erin Morley — was vital. “We didn’t want there to be a separation between what was happening inside the theater and what was happening outside the theater,” he sai.