Back when I was a young lad, superhero films were few and far between. It was a time when Marvel had yet to have a decent film based on one of their characters, and when it came to a superhero fix, we were pretty much just sat around waiting for the next Batman film. In 1997, not only did BATMAN & ROBIN destroy that lucrative franchise, but we also got a film titled SPAWN. I guess you could say it was the year I started to realise that some films could be, how we say, “cack”.
SPAWN comes from the mind of Todd McFarlane, and is an anti-hero that, in the comics at least, served as an antidote to the big heroes we know and love. It’s been a long time since the comic book movie boom began, and McFarlane wants to give SPAWN another shot. Speaking to The Gate, MacFarlane talks about the tone of the film, why a reboot is taking so long, and his role on the project.
When speaking of how long we might have to wait for the new film, McFarlane said:
The reality is that I’ve got a lot of pressure. They want me to deliver the script by the end of the year, which would basically mean we’d be shooting next year. So, that’s the goal right now. The thing that keeps slowing it down is that the negotiation I’ve done is I write, produce, direct, but I’ve got to push a lot of my other endeavours off to the side so I can just get tunnel vision on it. And so everybody at my company is now going, ‘We’ve got to find Todd the time to finish all this.’
McFarlane also mentions how he intends to use a small budget and a short shooting schedule:
I think it’s a 60-70 day shoot. I think it’s a quick shoot. It’s not going to be a giant budget with a lot of special effects, it’s going to be more of a horror movie and a thriller movie, not a superhero one. I’ve got so many people phoning now that I’ve got to get it done. I’ve made some promises to people this year.
Interest in a potential reboot has been growing recently, thanks in no small part to the interest of Jamie Foxx, who said he was aggressively pursuing the role. However, McFarlane is keeping tight lipped where casting is concerned:
You know what, we’ve had some big names–like who you’re mentioning–come to the office and go ‘We want to be in it’. Sometimes they give me their pitch, I give them my pitch, I go, ‘We can get in it, this is how it goes’, and so those types of actors–Academy Award guys–they’re going, ‘As soon as that scripts done, we’re going’. So once we get this thing done, we’ll get it off the ground with some big names.
I wouldn’t say I’m excited about a SPAWN reboot, but I know the character has potential. A lower budget could work in McFarlane and SPAWN’s favour, and a darker tone is certainly the way to go.
Source: The Gate
