I love Todd McFarlane. Truly, I do. If you check out my Facebook page then you’ll see my Avatar is a 2015 Spider-Man sketch from the artist. That being said, I have read soo many articles and interviews with the artist discussing a proposed Spawn movie reboot. The only thing I find annoying is that these websites that publish further interviews with him swear that they have some sort of scoop or that his musings on a new film are fresh news when in fact they are not. I met with Todd some 7 years ago and got the actual first reveal that a new Spawn movie was being pitched and at the time pressed him for details. Here are some quotes:
Anthony: You mentioned that you’re trying to get another movie about Spawn created, where is that currently as far as development goes?
Todd: All they’re waiting for is my script. As soon as I get my script, which could take me about 2 months if I’m not distracted, that’s always a good guess. I got the story, I’ve been living with the story for 10 years I know the story I got the story down… which is why they wanna make it! Cus, I keep pitching them the story and they go “Well, go write it Todd”.
Anthony: You mentioned in your panel that it would be “scaled back” and it wouldn’t be a “Superhero” story and would be more realistic rather than the “muscle vs. muscle” movie. So, what kind of story do you have in mind?
Todd: You ever see the movie “The Departed”?
Anthony: Uh, Yeah.
Todd: It’s like the movie “The Departed” except there’s a boogey man in it.
Oh, and here’s the audio so you can hear it from the man himself:
Way back then, when I was a fresh faced writer, I believed him! Hollywood was surely beating at his door for fresh Super Hero content considering all the success of the Marvel films, right? All they needed the man to do was to sit down and write the dang script! But he was so busy making… toys.. or something.
Fast Forward to today and the news is largely the same. Spawn will be a horror movie. Spawn will not be the protagonist. Spawn will bend genre’s. I love Todd, and Spawn is okay I guess, but I feel I have to call bullshit. I think Studios were on board for a super hero movie but Spawn is anything BUT a super hero. He doesn’t fight crime, rarely cares about the well being of those outside his circle, and doesn’t have the traditional ‘Good vs Evil’ thing going unless you count his occasional disagreement’s with the denizens of Hell. I could understand Hollywood having a hard time wanting to finance this thing.
I theorize that McFarlane tried his pitch, it got shot down, and decided he’s gonna bet it all on black and finance the thing himself. If he does this, and is successful, it’ll be the stuff of comic legend. As of writing outlets are reporting that McFarlane has begun the casting process and progress is being made with Blumhouse Productions.
We’ll reach out to Todd for comment and report back with any response.
[CBR]
