Stunt coordinator Adam Horton explains

Lionsgate's new adaptation of The Crow, James O'Barr's graphic novel about a man who rises from the dead to seek revenge on his killers, is generous with satisfyingly violent scenes. None, however, is more impressive than an opera house rampage in which The Crow (Bill Skarsgård) fights his way through an army of henchmen on his way into the audience. The choreography of the fights fits perfectly with the performance of Robert le diable, creating a sequence that is as lyrical as it is bloody – just as director Rupert Sanders and stunt coordinator Adam Horton intended.

“Our initial approach was about the musicality of the sequence,” Horton told IndieWire, adding that it was important that the action expressed the emotions of Skarsgård's character in the same way that the opera on stage conveyed the internal states of its characters. “The emotions he had lived through formed our basis for what he was feeling during that fight sequence. It's important that it's not just a fight. What pain is he fighting through?”

Horton said the choreography of the action to “Robert le diable” – performed by the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, the Chœur de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux, conductor Marc Minkowski and stars John Osborn and Erin Morley – was crucial. “We didn't want a disconnect between what was happening in the theater and what was happening outside the theater,” he said. “We wanted the action to fit rhythmically with what was happening on stage and in the orchestra.” The idea was that audience reactions to the opera about the devil's son having to choose between his father and true love would be equally well suited to the fights. “Of course it's much more brutal, but we wanted to feel connected in the same environment.”

Horton began planning the sequence without knowing exactly how it would play out. “We did it in broad strokes because we didn't know the location yet,” he said, adding that the nonspecific way the action was described on the page opened up a lot of possibilities. “I love it because then there's a lot of discussion between myself, Rupert and Bill and then my stunt team about developing and creating the action. We start to experiment with a freer latitude of creativity than if you were just following a text beat for beat.”

Horton designed the sequence and created a pre-visualization in a studio, then adapted his plan to the actual theater in Prague that was chosen for filming. He found that Skarsgård's skills as a physical actor helped tremendously in making the set convincing. “We evaluated his skills in the rehearsal room and luckily he was great,” Horton said. “He understands choreography very well and was very dedicated. We worked with him a lot in the development phase and he performed around 95 percent of his action sequences himself.

In addition to Skarsgård, Horton worked closely with every department head, from costume and hair to visual effects, to best realize Sanders' vision for the sequence. “We pre-visualize every single detail and analyze the wounds, injuries and humiliations for each costume,” Horton said. “We rehearse in costume – how tight is it? Do we need to feel more physical? Do the pads fit in? Does the harness fit in? Is it a bit restrictive? The same goes for makeup and prosthetics. We work fully with every single department to make sure we give each other as much information as possible, so when we get to shoot, everyone knows what they have to offer.”