Todd McFarlane Says His New SPAWN Film Is a Horror, Suspense, Supernatural Thriller
During a recent interview with Comicbook.com, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane revealed at Toy Fair New York that he has completed the script for his long-awaited new Spawn film and offers some details on what we can expect to see from that movie
With the success of Deadpool in its opening weekend, I think it’s safe to say that we might very well be seeing more R-rated superhero films hit theaters. One of those films could be Todd McFarlane’s Spawn… again.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first movie. In fact, it downright sucked. But I think this new adaptation of Spawn that the artist is working on will be a lot better. When talking about the script, McFarlane said:
"I've finished the script, and I'm in the process of editing. It's 183 pages, and [producers] usually like 120. I still think it's going to end up being about 140, because I'm putting in details for myself."
McFarlane is looking to direct this next film, and he’s hoping to start production on it later this year. He said:
"I want to keep it small, keep it tight, so they'll let me direct it! I need to get him back up on the big screen again to make him relevant in a big way, which we will do.”
I was a huge fan of Spawn growing up. He was one of my favorite comic book characters, and I especially enjoy the HBO animated Spawn series. I’d love to see Spawn get an awesome movie, and McFarlane has been talking about this project for YEARS, so hopefully it actually really happens.
McFarlane went on to explain that his new movie is going to different from any interpretation that we’ve seen from the character before. This is not going to be a superhero action movie. He wants this movie to be “a hard R” film that falls into the “horror/suspense/supernatural genre.” He explained:
"If you take the movie The Departed meets Paranormal Activity, something like that."
His goal is to do something very different and unique with the character and he explained what that is, saying:
"In the background, there’s this thing moving around, this boogeyman. That boogeyman just happens to be something that you and I, intellectually, know is Spawn. Will he look like he did in the first movie? No. Will he have a supervillain he fights? No. He’s going to be the spectre, the ghost."
He also spoke about how this new version of Spawn is like the lurking evil that we’ve seen in films like The Grudge and The Ring:
"I think they all work because there’s only one thing in the movie that’s not normal. There’s not five things, there’s one thing that’s the boogeyman. So that’ll be Spawn. He’s this thing that just whooshes in, this ghost that moves and will f*** you up if you’re in the wrong place in the wrong time, and the rest of the movie will look real, and be this real drama. He’s just this ghost, this thing behind it."
This isn’t the first time he’s shared this concept, and I’m extremely curious to see how he actually pulls it off for the big screen. Doing it this way will also allow him to keep the budget on the movie down.
"Basically, I can make this version of the movie on a budget without crazy special effects.
I would love to see this Spawn movie get made because it really has the potential to be something awesome. Jaimie Foxx showed interest in joining the project years ago, but who knows if that interest is still there. McFarlane will be shopping the project to studios soon, but I think he should just fund the damn thing himself and make it happen.
What do you all think of McFarlane’s plans for Spawn? Do you think he’ll actually get around to making the movie?