Say what you will about comic book creator/entrepreneur Todd McFarlane—he’s definitely persistent. After 1997’s “Spawn” film failed at the box office and has turned into a cautionary tale of what not to do with a superhero adaptation, McFarlane, who created the character, has been fighting the good fight in an attempt to see his true vision of “Spawn” hit the big screen. And though he’s hit some speed bumps along the way, McFarlane thinks he’s not asking for much from studios to bring his ideal film to life.
Speaking to Shoryuken, McFarlane spoke about the long-in-development “Spawn” reboot that he’s been trying to get made for more than a decade now. For those not following along, after a long gestational period, it seemed as if “Spawn” was moving ahead with Blumhouse attached and McFarlane signed to write and direct a low-budget, R-rated version of the film. Then Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner signed on. But it all fell apart.
Now, McFarlane is still working hard to bring “Spawn” back from the dead, and as he said in the new interview, he’s not asking for much to make it happen. He’s open to some creative negotiations.
He explained, “I have very few demands for the movie. It has to be Rated R, there’s no debate around that. With the story I want to tell, my intent goes back to that Spawn Cloud. I am less concerned about what happens in the movie as long as Spawn is ‘cool’ and ‘badass.’ The last demand is that I am the director. That’s it. Everything else is up for conversation.”
As for the current status of the “Spawn” reboot, McFarlane isn’t optimistic, particularly due to some recent behind-the-scenes developments.
“Last week I got some discouraging news, we had an academy award-winning guy who was going to do the movie with us, but he fell off,” McFarlane said. “We had people willing to fund the movie as long as we had this guy attached but schedules were conflicting, and things had to change. That’s how close we are to getting this thing off the ground.”
So, it’s quite clear that McFarlane is back at square one with trying to get someone to pick up his idea for the film. We’ll just have to wait and see if anyone takes a chance on the superhero horror film.
