Los Angeles, Jun 17 (IANS): “Boardwalk Empire” fame actor Jack Huston has dropped out of “The Crow" remake, which has been in development for years.

The remake of 1994 film initially had Luke Evans to portray Eric Draven, but he left the project in January reportedly to pursue other projects. Following Evans's departure, the studio tapped Huston to replace Evans in the film.

However, Huston was forced to quit the reboot due to scheduling issues, reports variety.com.

Although the issues were not specified, some speculated that it's the remake of "Ben-Hur", in which Huston currently working on, that caused his departure.

Director Corin Hardy confirmed Huston's departure in a statement. "Jack Huston is unfortunately unavailable to continue with us on 'The Crow'".

"'The Crow' is an amazing project, and I'm grateful that we have the time and patience to get it right. We look forward to unveiling our new lead and starting to film over the next several weeks.”

However, the creative team behind "The Crow" already has two possible names to replace Huston. The first candidate is Nicholas Hoult, who is well known for his role as Hank McCoy in "X-Men: First Class", "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and the currently-filmed "X-Men: Apocalypse".

The second candidate is Jack O'Connell who starred in "Starred Up" and "Unbroken".

Based on James O'Barr's 1989 comic book of the same name, the long-gestating film centers on Draven, a murdered rock star who is brought to life by supernatural bird crow to avenge his murder and that of his fiancee.

The reboot is aimed for a 2016 release.