In an interview with
Assignment X, Todd McFarlane once again states the he wants the next
Spawn film to feel more like the grittier HBO animated series, than the PG-13 film. He says the script is just a couple months from completion and already has an idea of how much the budget will be, and sees it as being more of a supernatural thriller and less like a superhero film: "It’s a ten-million-dollar, R-rated supernatural movie that takes all the superhero stuff out of it. So for people who want to go see an IRON MAN redo, that’s not it. For people who like THE CONJURING, then it’s going to be right up that alley.
So, not a horror film, but a supernatural thriller. Todd, offers another way of pitching his vision: "This is just going to be
The Departed and
L.A. Confidential with a ghost moving around in it."
AX: Did you feel that the 1997 version of SPAWN, with Michael Jai White in the title role, did work but just came out at the wrong time, or did you feel that there were problems with it that you want to correct this time?
As for the 1997 version of
Spawn, McFarlane acknowledges that the film did the best that it could with a first-time producer and first-time director, "given the inexperience that we had. So I thought on a scale of one to ten, it was a five. It probably would have done better if it had come out in the midst of all the superhero stuff, because we were sort of a little bit ahead of the curve, and some of the special effects weren’t quite up to the standards that they are right now, so it was what it was."
Back in July, Jamie Foxx ("The Amazing Spider-Man 2") publicly announced that he is "aggressively" pursuing the lead in the much talked about
Spawn reboot. Todd addressed Jamie's announcement, "Jamie was out at my office. I thought we were going to keep it on the q.t. I’ve talked to some pretty high-profile actors. I think he’s just putting the pressure on me to get the script done. So I sold him on my pitch. I go, “Here, I’ve got an idea that could keep you in the SPAWN movies for twenty years, but it can’t be about physicality. It has to be more about a little bit of acting and then this specter, this sentinel, that moves around in an otherwise hard drama movie.”
This live-action film based on the popular comic strip involves a CIA agent who dies in a botched operation and strikes a deal with the devil.
SPAWN (1997) - It was directed by Mark A.Z. Dippé, from a screenplay written by Alan B. McElroy. The cast included: Michael Jai White as Al Simmons/Spawn, John Leguizamo as Violator, Martin Sheen as Jason Wynn, Nicol Williamson as Cogliostro, Theresa Randle as Wanda Blake-Fitzgerald, D. B. Sweeney as Terry Fitzgerald, Melinda Clarke as Jessica Priest and Frank Welker as Malebolgia (voice). On a $40 million budget, the film grossed $87 million at the worldwide box office.