Todd McFarlane discusses his plans for a new Spawn film.
With the rise in popularity of R-rated comic book movies of late, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane has been pretty vocal about his plans for the reboot of his most famous creation, which he is writing and directing and he uses a surprising comparison when discussing it;
“I like to explain that it’s my Jaws,” McFarlane told azcentral. “Spawn doesn’t say a word the entire movie, and it’s the same way with Jaws. It’s about the sheriff and the people, chasing the ghost. That’s it…The lead role isn’t Spawn, the lead role is a cop, like Sheriff Brody from Jaws. I think we can hook a fairly significant actor that we want. Unlike a superhero movie, we wouldn’t need an actor to put on prosthetic (makeup) or go to the gym. We just need him to act.”
The character was originally seen in live action form in the 1997 film directed by Mark A.Z. Dippe and starred Michael Jai White in the lead. McFarlane’s lead for the new version is as yet uncast, but is said to be a harder take on his creation. The writer explained that this won’t just involve the use of a few “swears”;
“It will be dark and heavy, serious, R-rated. It won’t be a superhero movie,” McFarlane says. “I don’t think most people would categorize it as that. It will be a supernatural thriller, like a lot of good creep movies. The only thing in the movie that’s fantastic is Spawn, and anything else is otherwise normal. We’re talking trauma, true trauma, as serious as possible.”
With a budget of just $10 million, many may fear that it’s an ambitious plan but McFarlane was quick to point out that it is possible and cited M. Night Shyamalan’s Split (which cost just $11 million) as an example of how small budgets can lead to big success and went on to explain how he envisions this new iteration of Spawn;
“Not a big extravaganza movie that’s got a bunch of special effects. Something that is going to be dark and gnarly and gritty and it’s going to be all real except for this one element that you and I intellectually know as Spawn. There is going to be a bad ass ‘shark in black water’ and if you are going to be a bad guy, he is going to take you out.”