It’s been nearly a decade since Todd McFarlane made a deal with Blumhouse to make his Spawn movie. The creator of the Image Comics character, ever since, has had an impossible time getting the project off the ground. McFarlane has listed reasons why the Spawn reboot hasn’t happened yet. None of them have been satisfying to fans. Now, McFarlane has yet another update. It sounds like the movie is going nowhere fast.
In a recent interview with Dread Central, the comic book legend once again stated the script problems are a big hold up. “We’re just still trying to get the script right,” McFarlane said. “I know it’s frustrating to everybody, especially me, I haven’t signed off because I just am not reading what I have in my head.”
At one point, McFarlane was supposed to write and direct the movie himself. It’s not clear who is going to direct Spawn now. It’s also not clear who is currently working on the screenplay. Quite a few writers have come and gone. Speaking further, McFarlane further explained that he doesn’t just want it to be an origin story. Nothing he’s seen is close enough to what he wants to see.
“What’s happening is people are either going too far off the reservation, or they’re being too loyal to it. To me, there’s nothing worse than somebody coming up to me going, ‘Hey, I’m going to do a Spawn movie, and I’m going to take your first five issues, and I’m going to redo the origin issue.’ First off, we’ve already had that movie. And second off…There’re 380 issues of Spawn. I’m telling you right now, very little of the conversation would be the first five issues. I’ve got 380 chapters. Spawn is not defined by the first four or five chapters.”
The 1997 Spawn movie was, indeed, an origin story. It wasn’t terribly well received at the time of its release. Because he was so frustrated with that process, McFarlane has been determined to stay in creative control this time around. Speaking a little further, he used recent examples of horror hits to explain what he believes the movie should look like.
“It should just be really dark and gritty and unsettling. When I see examples like Obsession or Backrooms, you go, ‘The audience will consume this.’ We don’t need to do superhero. As a matter of fact…we should be trying to do something different because, again, we’re not going to have a $200 million budget like other superhero movies.”
In recent years, the Spawn Universe was launched by Image Comics. This includes titles like King Spawn and Gunslinger Spawn. The idea being that there is a whole universe to explore beyond the core character. Even so, none of that has helped get even a single movie off the ground. For now, it remains firmly trapped in development hell.
The Spawn movie remains without a release date.
What do you think? Will the movie ever happen? Should McFarlane give up a little more creative control? Join in on the conversation over on Facebook or Instagram!
