Tag: Todd McFarlane

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

‘Spawn’ Actor Michael Jai White Puzzled By Todd McFarlane’s Reboot – “Good Luck With That”

A Spawn feature film reboot has been in the works for over two decades as the character had been widely popular in the 1990s with the original Image Comics run, a toyline, video games, an animated series on HBO, and lackluster feature film released back in 1997 that had some of the worst CGI of that decade in a major motion picture.

Spawn focuses on Al Simmons, a murderous government assassin who is killed and while in hell makes a deal to lead their army as the Hellspawn if can say goodbye to his wife Wanda. During this brief time on Earth he decides to take own his killers and a local mob boss with his new powers as he attempts to protect Wanda’s new family alongside his homeless cohorts.

It’s comic book creator Todd McFarlane had eventually convinced Blumhouse Pictures to get involved allowing him to write and direct the film, however, there have been multiple hiccups despite landing Jamie Foxx as Al Simmons aka Spawn and Jeremy Renner as Detective Twitch (bizarre casting).

Comic Book Resources caught-up with the original film’s actor Michael Jai White, who starred in the live-action film from 1997 to get his impression of the reboot being pursued by Todd McFarlane and Blumhouse Pictures. It sounds like White isn’t terribly convinced of either the way they want to make the film or if Todd is the right person to execute it as the director.

WHITE: “He’s been trying to get a new movie up and going for 23 years so I don’t know. [Laughs] The last time I saw him, he was telling me about his idea of Spawn being ethereal fog that you don’t see, like Jaws, and he strikes and you never see him and I’m like ‘Okay, good luck with that!’.

“Personally, I wish him well, that would be a major investment.”

“I don’t know Todd to be a director at all. It’s kind of like Stan Lee: He created the character but he doesn’t direct him and I guess somebody would have to pony up a lot of money for Todd McFarlane to direct for his first time directing this movie idea that he has. I’ve heard about Jamie Foxx starring in it and wish them well. I don’t know, maybe it continues because this is what people like to hear from Todd McFarlane. He can get attention by promising another Spawn; I don’t get it.”

Despite positive talk from both Todd and Blumhouse’s Jason Blum about the impending feature film still in scripting stages, it doesn’t feel like they’ll be shooting anytime soon. There had been some information a couple of years ago that they were almost about to begin shooting in Toronto when the whole thing was unplugged at the last minute, currently still in active development.

As a fan of the source material, I’m perplexed that they want to deviate so much from the Spawn mythology to create something that fans will have trouble supporting. It mostly feels like a budgetary thing to give Todd creative freedom and his shot at directing a studio film rather than making a project that a majority of fans would embrace alongside a general audience, even though this will be a niche film with limited appeal to begin with.

SOURCE: COMIC BOOK RESOURCES

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