“The Crow” reboot filmmaker says he banned real guns on set: 'You have to be safe'

While in production on the reboot, director Rupert Sanders vowed, "We will have no firing weapons on set."

The director of the new reboot of The Crow decided not to take chances and banned real guns from set during production.

In an interview with Variety, director Rupert Sanders stated in unambiguous terms that "safety is a number one priority." He elaborated that "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."

For that reason he banned real guns from The Crow set. "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."

Related: Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs take flight in gothic first look at The Crow

During the production of the original 1994 Crow, an actor fired a gun as set up in the scene, and with a "crew of between 75 and 100 people" looking on "Lee fell to the ground", according to Entertainment Weekly. "Not until the scene ended and Lee failed to get up did anyone realize he had been shot. 'It didn't really appear to the people on the set like anything was wrong,' said one eyewitness." The firearm malfunction resulted in the death of its 28-year-old star, the son of Bruce Lee, Brandon Lee.

Sanders, whose film will be the fifth entry in the Crow franchise, was keenly attuned to expectations around safety well before production began. "The first day I met with the special effects department and the armorer, who was great, in Prague," he told Variety, "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.”

Firing weapons were banned from set, and instead Sanders subbed in "Airsoft guns, and some of them are just rubber or metal decoys that are functional but have no firing mechanism.” The prop guns which are commonly used on film sets aren't one specific type of gun. They can range from fully non-operational gun-duplicates built from plastic or wood to once-operable guns that have been essentially mechanically decommissioned.

Related: Brandon Lee's family speaks out after Alec Baldwin movie shooting

Sanders explained the reason he opted for Airsoft guns is that, "The slide on a Glock will still move back, but then you have to add the shell casing ... 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."

Though the Ghost in the Shell director conceded that "you have to balance where you spend the money when you don't have a massive budget to do visual effects," he reasoned that the visual effects employed on The Crow were "a very worthwhile spend for everyone’s safety and comfort going into this project.”

The Crow stars Bill Skarsgård as Eric Draven and FKA Twigs as Shelly, lovers who are brutally killed. Draven is resurrected as a brooding and now supernaturally powerful antihero who seeks justice for Shelly's and his own murders. The reboot and the original are both based on James O'Barr's graphic novel, which began publishing in 1989, and costars Danny Huston, Laura Birn, Sami Bouajila, and Isabella Wei.

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Alex Proyas, the director of the 1994 film, has expressed criticism of the reboot, stating, "THE CROW is not just a movie. Brandon Lee died making it, and it was finished as a testament to his lost brilliance and tragic loss. It is his legacy. That's how it should remain."

Skarsgård is poised on the edge of a particularly spooky season at the movies, with not just The Crow but Nosferatu soon descending into theaters. The Crow will have its shot at box office glory first when it releases theatrically on Aug. 23.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.