Todd McFarlane has been teasing his Spawn movie for years. Jamie Foxx is set to play the lead role, Jeremy Renner is co-starring as Detective “Twitch,” and McFarlane signed one of the best practical visual effects guys in the business: The Walking Dead’s resident gorehound, Greg Nicotero.
Unfortunately, the only thing the Spawn creator hasn’t been able to get on board is a major studio. Many concluded this was because McFarlane, a one-time filmmaker for the ill-received 1997 Spawn film, insisted on directing. But we heard earlier in the year that the script might just reek.
A copy of a 2017 draft leaked online, with it being picked apart on YouTube and summarized as:
“This film is never getting made. And if it does get made from this script it’s garbage. Total garbage. Absolute crap.”
Perhaps this criticism was taken on board, as THR is reporting that writer Brian Tucker has been commissioned to rewrite McFarlane’s script. Tucker is responsible for 2013’s Broken City, starring Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, which didn’t exactly set the world on fire but is decent enough. He’s also working on the remake of The Fugitive for Warner Bros., so I suppose we’ll wait and see how that turns out.
The THR report also names McFarlane and Blumhouse’s Jason Blum as producers, with Carla Hacken executive producing. After so long without any news, I’d assumed that the project was dead, but it seems there are still signs of life in the franchise yet.
You have to praise McFarlane’s tenacity in getting this film made, as I’d have likely thrown in the towel by now. Spawn fans can at least hold out hope that the new HBO animated show becomes a reality. Animation means fans don’t have to worry too much about budgetary constraints in depicting the lead character, and the series would theoretically follow in the footsteps of the excellent late-90s show. As for the reboot, only time will tell.