Just days after we reported that Mark Wahlberg is in talks to star in The Crow, Mania.com is now reporting that director Stephen Norrington has left the project.

The site spoke with Stephen Norrington himself, trying to get confirmation on the Mark Wahlberg story, and he said he was no longer attached to direct:

""I don't know about that story but I can tell you I'm no longer involved with The Crow."

The director went on to say that an unnamed actor had become involved with The Crow and, despite loving Stephen Norrington's vision for the movie, the actor demanded a new rewrite of the script, which Stephen Norrington co-wrote with Nick Cave, from an original script by a different writer:

"As I had gotten involved explicitly as a writer-director my exit was inevitable. I was bummed. I had developed a genuinely authentic take that respected the source material while moving beyond it, and Nick Cave came in and added more depth. I think the fans would have been pleasantly surprised."

The site does speculate that the unnamed star was not Mark Wahlberg, because of the following comments the director gave:

"I will say I think Wahlberg could be cool if they take a gritty blue-collar approach. He's a truthful actor. I think he could really ground the supernatural stuff."