Tag: Jason Blum

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Spawn’ Remake Getting Rewrites From ‘Broken City’ Screenwriter Brian Tucker

Despite almost going into production a while back, it looks like Blumhouse has hired a new screenwriter to help with rewrites on the their Spawn remake. Image Comics’ Todd McFarlane created the comic book character after leaving Marvel Comics to form his own creative-driven comic book company. McFarlane is also set to direct the mature comic book film and wrote the original draft of Spawn’s script.

Spawn is centered on a black-ops agent, Al Simmons, who is betrayed and murdered and his soul sent to hell for all the innocents he killed. While there, he makes a deal with a demon who allows him to return to the earthly plane and his wife. However, five years have now passed, and his wife has moved on, while he is a disfigured and superpowered spawn of hell.

The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the studio has assigned Brian Tucker (Broken City) to do rewrites on the script, however, the extent of the reworking isn’t clear. Tucker is also working on The Fugitive remake for Warner Bros. that was announced a while back.

It sounds like they’ve been having trouble getting the film financed and hopefully some rewrites will get things in motion. McFarlane’s original pitch for the remake sounded so off-case that it sort of didn’t even sound like a Spawn movie anymore. As a fan, I kind of wish they’d look to the HBO animated series for inspiration instead of trying to make a low-budget horror film using the Spawn brand to get money for it.

Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx (Miami Vice, Baby Driver, Project Power) had been originally attached to play Al Simmons/Spawn and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, Wind River) was going to play Detective Twitch before the project stalled multiple times. It’s unknown if the pair of actors will be coaxed back to return at this point or if the studio will look at finding replacements.

Foxx recently joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe by reprising his role of Electro in Spider-Man: No Way Home coming out on December 17 and Renner’s Disney+ series Hawkeye will debt on November 24.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

‘Adrift’: Jared Leto & Darren Aronofsky Reuniting For Ghost Ship Movie – Based On Short Story From The Author of ‘The Ring’

Jared Leto and director Darren Aronofsky haven’t worked together since Requiem For A Dream, but that is all changing according to a new report from Deadline. The outlet reveals the two will be reteaming for a horror flick titled Adrift with Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions producing.

The project is based on a short story from Koji Suzuki‘s Dark Water, the author of the Japanese horror classic The Ring that was turned into multiple feature films in Japan and the United States.

The story is set in the dead calm of the open sea, where a fishing boat discovers an abandoned yacht with a strange distress call. A deckhand agrees to take lone control of it while it’s towed into port, but soon he discovers why the rest of his more experienced crew members call it a “Ghost Ship.”

Darren will be a little busy as he’s about to begin shooting his drama Whale with Brendan Fraser in March.

Leto’s next films to be released will be the crime thriller The Little Things starring opposite Denzel Washington that has been getting some buzz and the Spider-Man spinoff Morbius that was recently delayed to January 2022.

THE LITTLE THINGS – Deputy Sheriff Joe “Deke” Deacon joins forces with Sgt. Jim Baxter to search for a serial killer who’s terrorizing Los Angeles. As they track the culprit, Baxter is unaware that the investigation is dredging up echoes of Deke’s past, uncovering disturbing secrets that could threaten more than his case.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Producer Jason Blum Promises ‘Spawn’ Remake Will Be “Very Edgy” Compared To The Original Movie

It’s been ages since we’ve had any real update concerning Blumhouse’s new remake of the Image Comics character Spawn, the feature film coming from comic book creator Todd Todd McFarlane who originally planned on writing and directing.

Producer Jason Blum gave a brief update to Inverse stating they’re still working on the story and will be making a much more edgy version compared the original live-action film released back in 1997.

BLUM: “It’s gonna be very different, it’s gonna be very edgy. What excited me about it is that Spawn is kind of the last great unexploited comic. So that seemed like an amazing opportunity. It’s taken longer than I hoped it would have to get the story right, but we’re still working on it.”

The version of Spawn seen in both the comics and the excellent HBO animated series as considered “edgy”. If you’re unfamiliar with Spawn, Al Simmons is a government assassin that murdered by his handlers then sent to hell. There he is given a chance to return to Earth to see his wife Wanda one more time if he leads hell’s army as the Hellspawn. As the Hellspawn, he decides to rebuff the offer and becomes a violent crime fighter going after mobsters, assassins, crooked cops, and a pedophile serial killer named Billy Kincaid.

From some of the comments made by Todd McFarlane he was going to attempt something that vastly deviated from his original version of Spawn which, to me, sounded like it would turn off a lot of fans of the franchise. Seemingly focusing on Twitch’s perspective and making Spawn more of a boogeyman figure. A concept that sounded like it was based on securing a smaller than normal budget so that Todd could keep creative control and direct.

The character made waves because at the time there weren’t too many popular African-American superheroes at the level of Spawn, the character and merchandise was everywhere before the ridiculous feature film make him a bit of a joke. A slight issue with the rights to Spawn is that Todd and Blumhouse can’t use franchise characters like mob boss Tony Twist (due to civil suit), Angela (sold to Marvel by creator Neil Gaiman), and Chapel (owned by Rob Liefeld via Youngblood).

Spawn got a little bit of a cultural revival recently thanks to joining the DLC character lineup of Mortal Kombat 11, voiced by Keith David, who played Spawn on the HBO series.

At one time, Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained, Baby Driver, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Miami Vice) was announced to play Al Simmons aka Spawn with Jeremy Renner (Hurt Locker, The Avengers) to play an incarnation of Detective Maximilian “Twitch” Williams. Both are currently busy with Marvel Cinematic Universe projects as Foxx will be playing a version of villain Electro in Jon Watt’s Spider-Man 3 and Renner is reprising the Clint Barton role in a Hawkeye series for Disney+.

They had once planned on shooting the Spawn in Toronto, but it remains to be seen if they’ll stick with that location if cameras ever start rolling on the remake. Makeup and special effects artist Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead, Watchmen, Preacher) was also expected to work on the film, something I first reported in the summer of 2018.

SOURCE: INVERSE