Of all the comic book characters not to have been a product of either DC or Marvel, Spawn has undoubtedly emerged as one of the most popular around, no doubt helping put Image on the map back in the day. Not only that, but the anti-hero has headlined an animated series, and helped jump-start Todd McFarlane’s line of action figures that have also put out highly detailed toys for everything from The Matrix to Metal Gear Solid and even professional athletes!
Well, there was also the eponymous movie that saw release in 1997, but a lot of fans choose not to talk about it. I mean, Michael Jai White was a great fit for the character and there were good intentions behind the project, but the final product ultimately missed the mark, with some suspect visual effects and campiness not helping matters at all. On the plus side, though, the soundtrack gave us what I thought to be one of Marilyn Manson’s best songs ever in the form of “Long Hard Road Out of Hell,” so it wasn’t a total loss.
This time, however, McFarlane is playing for keeps, even stepping out from behind his desk to direct the upcoming reboot. In addition to having him at the helm, the picture has been given serious weight due to Jamie Foxx signing on for the lead role.
If that weren’t enough, McFarlane also spoke to SyFy of how the film will maintain its fidelity to the source material, making it sound as though we’ll be looking at a living, breathing comic book:
“There will almost be nothing that’s in the movie that I won’t be able to show you a page from somewhere in the 280+ issues of Spawn we’ve published. I’m not really making anything up out of the blue. I’m really piecing together elements and moments from various Spawn stories. Anything that’s in the movies, I’ll be able to pinpoint a page in a particular issue where that scene came from. I’ll hit it with a bigger visual drumbeat in the movie because I need to speak to a larger audience that may not know who Spawn is and will be looking at it through a different lens. They want to be entertained and creeped out, and I have to deliver that.”
As he continued, it was reaffirmed that Spawn himself will be a silent, menacing figure, with the Twitch Williams character sounding as though he’ll be our guide through the journey:
“I don’t actually intend to show [Spawn] from head to toe in the movie. You’re never going to get a hero shot in the movie. Twitch is the character I keep calling my Sheriff Brody. That movie is about the shark and how the shark moves and what he does. That’s my Spawn. Twitch is like Brody, who’s part of the human contingent who’s trying to find out if this thing really does exist.”
Currently, the Spawn reboot lacks a release date, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted, as it’s shaping up to be something truly badass.