The tragic true story of how Brandon Lee died on 'The Crow' movie set in 1993

Before Bill Skarsgård smeared on Eric Draven’s sinister black and white face paint, a burgeoning Brandon Lee embodied the resurrected superhero at the center of James O'Barr’s comic.

“The Crow,” released in 1994, could easily have been a breakthrough role for Lee, who was just 8 when his father, action star Bruce Lee, died of brain swelling. Critic Roger Ebert declared the movie “more of a screen achievement than any of the films of his father” in his review.

Rupert Sanders, who directed the remake taking flight Friday in theaters, praises Lee’s performance in an interview with USA TODAY: “He’s very, very good in the movie and he's got a kind of deadness to him that's really strong.“

Filming began on Feb. 1, 1993, the day the actor turned 28, with Lee playing a rock star who rises from his grave for revenge after he and his fiancée are mercilessly murdered. Lee planned to marry personal assistant Eliza Hutton on April 17 in Mexico after the production concluded in Wilmington, North Carolina. But on March 31, Lee was killed in an accidental shooting while filming a scene in which his character dies.

Ahead of the new “Crow,” we revisit the tragedy of the original.

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How did Brandon Lee die on the set of ‘The Crow’?

In the scripted moment not seen in the finished movie, Eric is shot by ruffian Funboy (Michael Massee). As cameras rolled, Lee was shot in the abdomen with a piece of a dummy bullet left in the gun's barrel from an earlier scene.

The .44 Magnum was loaded with blanks, hastily made by a crew member who removed gun powder from live bullets. The blank cartridge fired the fragment with the force of a real bullet, striking Lee from about 15 feet away.

The actor suffered extensive internal damage and significant blood loss. He died at New Hanover Regional Medical Center after hours of surgery.

Criminal charges were not filed in Lee’s death. But the actor's mother, Linda Lee Cadwell, filed a negligence lawsuit naming producers and 13 other corporations and individuals. The suit, which also included Hutton, was settled for an undisclosed amount.

How did filmmakers finish ‘The Crow’ after Brandon Lee died?

The film was completed with the help of special effects company Dream Quest Images and stunt performer Chad Stahelski, who went on to direct the four “John Wick” movies.

A few months after the shooting, stunt coordinator Jeff Imada phoned Stahelski, a friend of Lee's, and asked if he’d help finish “The Crow.” Stahelski flew to meet with director Alex Proyas and review footage of Lee.

“For 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 still believe that 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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For ‘The Crow’ remake, director Rupert Sanders insisted on no live-fire weapons

Sanders reinforced the importance of safety on his sets to USA TODAY.

“We work in a very dangerous environment,” Sanders says. “There's always a fast car with a crane attached to it, or a horse galloping at speed, or shooting takeoffs on the USS Roosevelt. You're always in the firing line, but it’s safety first for me. It’s just not worth the risk.

“One of the things that I was very strict about Day 1 with the armorer was no live-firing weapons,” Sanders says. He insisted on airsoft guns, which look like real weapons but use compressed air to fire.

Sanders wanted not “one bit of blank ammunition on set. So everything we shot with was done digitally, and I don't think it changes the dynamic of how you view them in the movie. If anything, blanks don't really react the same way as a live-firing round does anyway, so it's already a bit faked. You're actually able to get a more realistic approach by using (visual effects).”

Contributing: Patrick Ryan and Maria Puente