Todd McFarlane Says His SPAWN Script is Being Polished By Another Writer/Director and That It Will Get Made

Todd McFarlane has offered an update on what is currently going on with his Spawn movie, which he has been working on for over a decade. After he finally got a studio and producer to back him with Blumhouse Pictures and two big stars attached, the project seems to still be struggling to move forward.

Jaimie Foxx will be taking on the role of Spawn and Jeremy Renner was cast in the role of Detective Twitch. So, why is the project taking so long to get made? Well, during a recent interview with BeTerrific, McFarlane said that the money is there waiting and the script is currently being polished by another writer/director. He also says the movie is definitely going to get made.

“Right now it’s being polished by another writer-director from the script that we handed him. He’s supposed to be done with it here in a few weeks, and then once we sort of go back and forth and tighten it up a little bit, then we’re going into Hollywood and we’re gonna get a yes or no. Here’s what I can tell you: I have people with money on the sidelines. There are people that are gonna help me make this movie. The question is, do we go into Hollywood, make a deal with Hollywood, go and make the production, and then come back? Or do I take the outside money, go make it, and then come back to Hollywood?”

“Either way, the movie’s coming. It’s not an ‘if,’ it’s a ‘when.’ I just think that it would be better for the process if we could attach one of the studios in advance, and then go put it out. Because then we’d be able to make an announcement of the release date, and a couple things that matter to the fans, knowing that it’s coming instead of making it and trying to get the release date later.”

I wonder if Blumhouse is still even involved with the project anymore. You’d think if Blumhouse was involved he wouldn’t still be trying to figure out what he wants to do with the project and debating on what kind of funding he should go with. When asked if it’s more difficult attaching other actors with no studio on board, McFarlane said:

“Yes. And the reason is because their lawyers and agents and stuff will say there’s a little bit of an unknown, so we don’t know if they’re gonna get a deal, if they do get a deal, how many theaters they’re gonna get it released in, what kind of advertising campaign, blah blah blah.”

“They like the sure thing. So there’s leverage on the studio side, because they know that it may retain some of the talent that is either on or could come onto it.”

When previously talking about the tone of the movie, the director promised that there would be “no joy,” and explained:

“There’s gonna be no fun lines in it, and it’s just gonna be this dark, ugly two hours worth of movie, which is essentially what a lot of supernatural/horror movies are anyway. There’s not a lot of funny in them. And that seems to be a weird hurdle for a lot of people in this city to get over because they sort of go into a superhero/Avengers default all the time.”

McFarlane went on to say that this Spawn film is going to be a serious R-rated, scary, creepy movie:

“My bent for what I want to do with Spawn is a lot more serious, and a lot more dark, than what people are seeing traditionally in PG-13 superhero movies. It’s just going to be a dead-serious, R-rated, scary, creepy movie. Done, period, and I’m not wavering from that. And if at some point they just go, ‘No, the only way this gets made is if we convert that,’ then we’re never gonna make it. I’ll go and beg, borrow, and steal the money, I’ll get it made. Don’t worry, I’ll get it made.”

Well, I’m happy to see he’s determined and I hope this movie actually happens one day. I’ve been really curious to see his vision for it brought to life. When talking about his take on the story, he previously explained:

"There's two big roles in the script. There's obviously sort of Spawn himself, although in a weird way it's not the biggest role, and then there's the cop. The cop is this character Twitch who's been there since issue #1. Twitch is the role in this one, and I sort of refer to him as my sheriff Brody, who is the sheriff in the Jaws movie. Although it was called Jaws, Jaws didn't really talk a lot in his movie, right? He just kind of showed up at the opportune time to make the movie worthwhile."

He went on to elaborate on how his Spawn movie compares to Jaws, saying:

"It was sheriff Brody, the humans talking, chasing the fantastical thing that sort of made the movie, and to me, there's that element. Everything else is normal in this story other than (gesture) the shadow moves, and at times even when it moves, the cop just sort of thinks he's losing his mind so he doesn't even trust that the shadow's moving. If you're a bad guy, then this thing is going to come and it's going to get you."

He also said that Spawn himself won't talk in the movie. He'll just be this thing lurking in the shadows. When talking about the dynamic between the two main characters in the film, he said:

"Spawn is King Arthur and Twitch is Sir Lancelot, and this isn’t about physicality, or jumping over buildings. This is more a brawn and brain combination, and the first film I think of with him is The Hurt Locker, the army grunt doing the job, and that spilled out into all these roles leading up to Wind River. There was a sense of melancholy to that character that is important and that was a movie also made by a first time director, but one who wrote the thing and so wasn’t nervous about trying to get what you want. Jeremy had the experience of working with the first timer and saw that if you put a good crew together, the whole is way better than the parts and you don’t have to worry."

Do you think that McFarlane will ever actually make this movie and get it released?