Is there an appetite for a follow up to Spawn? The creator Todd McFarlane certainly thinks so in an interview with UGO through Moviehole:
McFarlane says the new movie will be about as close to the first one – which starred Michael Jai White and Martin Sheen – as Melbourne is to Mumbai.
“That one is sort of devoid of all comic book stuff. It’s a true spook movie in the vein of The Exorcist, or more recently with a movie like The Grudge or something like that.
The whole thing reads a bit oddly, but it sounds like his intentions are good for a follow up, and he seems to be looking at taking a different slant to everyone else in the comic adaptation world:
Ultimately, you never get a big giant look at him because he’s a ghost. All of sudden you turn and there is nothing there. I use Jaws as inspiration in a weird way. You don’t really see him in the first attack or the next couple of attacks. It wasn’t until a little later you see his mouth and some of the other stuff. The more I show him the less scary he will be so he will be more like a force of nature. There was this movie a few years ago called Jacob’s Ladder, so it will have creepy elements like that.
I do think that is an interesting take, instead of trying to bring the comic character to life on the big screen and recreate every physical aspect, hide them away and build the tension and suspense. Like the idea in Unbreakable, take away all the big costume and posturing of the hero and turn it into something closer to real life.
Sounds good, but there isn’t really much assistance from the Studios at the moment. They perhaps still want their heroes center screen and all dressed up:
Part of it is that no one wants to give us $70 million for the second movie. I can’t think big extravaganza so I have to go down low and keep the budget under $20 million. Which means no special effects…When we moved Spawn from New Line to Sony, Steve Niles and I did a script there. But as it stands right now Sony doesn’t want to let it up because they want some stupid number to buy it because they say they spent all this money.
Complications galore, but as is more and more the case in Hollywood of late, McFarlane is following the example of just going and getting it done, big dumb angry exec or not.
The deal that we were trying to make with one of the studios last week was that I would be writing, directing and producing it. We got the creative part set but we couldn’t get the co-financing aspect nailed down. Right now my intent is to just finance it myself and find a distributor later
Good on him. I have to say I’m not salivating at the prospect of another Spawn, but I am interested when the creatives and the non-financial driving force behind movies gets empowered and says to hell with the execs and Studios that are holding us back, let’s give the audience a movie.
Any Spawn fans out there like this take on the movie? Not even that, just apply the idea to your favourite superhero movie and think if you’d like it or not.
I am a big spawn fan and I want to see spawn fight malebolgia but I know that Mcflarlane dosn’t want a super haro movie but I dont care I want to see x-tream violants,blood and gore lots of gore and when spawn is fighting malebolgia, malebolgia should bring back violator to heip him and spawn could have midevil spawn could help spawn.
make the freakin movie already the 1st 1 had sucky stuff in it so just make the freakin movie guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mr. Todd, sir, mate, buddy, please understand that you need cgi effects, gore and a dark spooky atmosphere in order to capture the full spawn experience. I agree with the jaws approach, in other words keeping him almost hidden but there must also be big fantasmagoric effects and awesome villains etc… Anyway thats what your fans want! And who will the movie be for if not for them? Sorry if you find my opinion agressive, but the last thing I would want to see is a spawn movie wich doesnt resemble the comic because you tried to make it, how can I say, more of a quality noire film if you get what I mean. Anyway thanks for reading my notes and good luck on the making!
i don’t know that mcfarlane will be following the story of the first movie.
How will Todd Mcfarlane go about making an in depth, more psychological sequal to the first spawn movie? I admire Todds work, but the Spawn motion picture sucked! He was to heroic, he had way to many powers, Wanda didn’t even look twice in his direction once she realized who Spawn was, but the clown was funny. Back to the point, how will Todd make a sequal that is as deep as he sais it is, while following the story of the fist spawn movie?
Just make the movie!
I am a huge fan of Spawn and I would like to see a new Spawn movie, one better than the first one(which I think sucked). The first Spawn movie was a PG version of Spawn in my opinion. I wanna see a R version, the way Spawn is suppose to be with more violence, gore, and action. And I also wanna see more of the cape in the movie. I dont realy like to see Spawn without his cape too much, it at all. I also wanna see Spawn use more of his powers in the new Spawn movie, more of the green stuff.
I am the #1 spawn fan the first movie okay just not the way I would have done it more gore stiffer rating NC-17 sounds alot like it and for a second spawn movie Todd should do everything that he wants to do with his character and the storyline myself personally throw out the first movies storyline get Chapel involved he really killed Al Simmons not Priest! Also where was Sam & Twitch ? Also one character to be put in the next movie has to be Billy Kincaid. For the second movie I would rather see him do a 3 hour animated film but lately everyone wants live action. TODD if you are reading any of these posts PLEASE SHOW ALL THE FILM MAKERS WHO THINK THAT THEY CAN CREATE A COMIC BOOK MOVIE WHAT YOU CAN REALLY DO!!! One last thing before I leave hollywood screws up all comic book stories- spiderman 1&2 sucked, The Hulk blew, Daredevil why Ben Aflak?, The Punisher was good but he had 2 little girls not a son!! And SPAWN PG-13 not rated R or NC-17 the comic was gorey and had nudity if you been buying the comic for all these years and then saw the movie big letdown.
i think its a great idea i recently watched the animated spawn which basically goes through something like the first ten books. In that you rarely see more than his glowing eyes a bit of his mask and parts of his cape. once and a while you would get him holding a punk with his gloves and wicked chains but those shots were rare and pretty true to the comic book. As long as he keeps it honest to the material it may not be the best movie but i think more people will accept it.
I also think its great that he is financing it himself so that he gets what he wants.
The first Spawn was not that bad as a movie but it had nothing to do with the comic book. if there is going to be a second one the director should make sure that he doesn’t make the same mistake as in blade trinity(to much light and it looked more like a comedy and not a horror film). plus there are so many comic books it is so easy to write a scenario i could it. If there is going to be a second film they should make sure it doesn’t suck and read a couple of comics before they start.
I was watching the first one the other day on tv and couldn’t stop laughing at the horrendous CGI. At the time it was released, I remember thinking it was so cool. Amazing the leaps they’ve made in lst few years.
I hated the first Spawn movie. I was a big fan of the comic book and thought the movie was not ready to tackle on the material. The last news I heard from McFarlane was the lawsuit with this greedy hockey-player. I think a movie might financially put him back on track.
Still, I hope he will not direct the film. Cause:
1. He has no experience in filmdirection. Even though it is his material, directing is a craft you have to ledevelop by extensive practice, and even when you know all the tricks – bing a good director has everything to do with having talent for it.
2. If he is going to direct, that will mean that the budget will shrink. And making a Spawn film is prety much like making any other comic book film, it costs a lot of money. So don’t say you will do the film with no special effects. That is like making a historical film without the costumes, certainly nowadays with this comic book adaptation rage.
3. There are plenty of good direction who could not only make the project interesting, but who can also increase the production value. Out of the top of my head I would say: ALEX PROYAS !!!
I think it will be interesting to see what it becomes. Spawn should still look like Spawn with all the capes and chains and stuff, and the Violator could be turned into a really scary character.