Spawn Movie Reboot Officially Announced

[Lou Cypher]

SAM & TWITCH

Recently, Kevin Smith and BBC America started developing a TV series based on the Spawn supporting characters Sam and Twitch, a pair of cops who had their own spinoff series at one point, written early in Brian Michael Bendis's career.

Early press on Sam & Twitch has described it as a police procedural set in the world of Spawn.

“[Smith] is attached to write, direct and executive producer a series based on the Sam And Twitch comic book series for us,” BBC America president and general manager Sarah Barnett said. “They were originally introduced in Spawn, and it’s Todd McFarlane’s comic book series about these big-city homicide detectives who face a series of super grisly crimes that are connected to the occult. It's kind of frightening and sort of gallows humor. It’s, again, procedural, but in a very modern, contemporary way. So each episode is closed ended, although there are certain character-serialized aspects to the storytelling.”

There is no indication that the series will tie into the long-in-development second feature film starring Spawn, although with both coming at the same time, anything seems possible.

MORE SPAWN

Covert government assassin Al Simmons is killed after being double-crossed by his boss, Jason Wynn. Upon arriving in Hell, Simmons is offered an opportunity to return to Earth if he's willing to lead an evil army.

He accepts, and is reincarnated as a "Hellspawn" -- a twisted, horribly disfigured version of his former self. However, Spawn serves as a force of good, much to the dismay of the Devil's henchman, a wicked clown.
http://comicbook.com/2017/07/21/spawn-movie-reboot-officially-announced/#4

 

[Lou Cypher]

I really want to be excited for this, but Todd's idea sounds so fucking stupid. It will barely be a SPAWN film. Spawn will be a background character. The film will also be filmed as a found footage film. Shaky camera, all that shit.

 

[ghostdog56]

Is mjw gonna be in it?

 

[Lou Cypher]

No, that guy sucks. No casting announcements yet

 

[Broddie]

No, that guy sucks. No casting announcements yet

Black Dynamite, Blood and Bone and Undisputed II say FUCK YOU!!!

Anyway he's alwas been interested in trying again. So anything can happen.

 

[Lou Cypher]

Todd McFarlane has found a home for his forthcoming Spawn movie, the Image Comics co-founder announced today.

The movie -- which McFarlane has said will be a horror-focused movie with a budget in the neighborhood of $10 million -- is headed to Blumhouse, the studio known for films like The Purge, Paranormal Activity, and The Belko Experiment. McFarlane will direct.

"Having worked with many visionary directors, I think Todd's unique artistic talents will only add to his role as director of this film," said Blumhouse chief Jason Blum.

McFarlane has written the first draft of the screenplay, which the announcement for the movie described as a "dark exploration of one of comics’ most popular characters." McFarlane is known for reinventing the look of Spider-Man as well as co-creating the Venom character for Marvel Comics.

McFarlane has been working on a script and teasing a revival of the Spawn franchise for years. The previous film iteration starred Michael Jai White and was released in 1998. It was critically panned, earning just 18% on Rotten Tomatoes.

While that version of the movie looked and felt like a superhero film, the new Spawn will be decidedly less so.

"I'd put it more into horror/suspense/supernatural genre," McFarlane told ComicBook back in 2016. "If you take the movie The Departed meets Paranormal Activity, something like that."

It was around that same time McFarlane confirmed his intent to direct the film himself, saying that he had been pitching the movie around to studios and that with several interested parties, anybody who balked at allowing him to direct would find themselves out of the running.

"It's slowly moving forward, just trying to put all the pieces together both from an artistic and a financial," McFarlane said more recently. "The intent is trying to finance as much as possible internally and then finding partners who will help in the production of it as we move forward. I can argue getting the money might be harder than getting everybody signed off on the story. What I can tell you is what I've told everybody else: it will be a definite R. I'm not going for the same crowd that Marvel and DC is going for; I'm going for the same crowd that horror film releases going for. People who want to take their boyfriend or girlfriend or go out with the girls and go to the movies and get spooked."

That's not such a surprise; not only has Spawn always been a book that deals in the supernatural, but even before he took on a book full of angels, demons, hellspawns and Violators, McFarlane liked to bring the creepy to his mainstream work as well.

"When I started writing, even at the very beginning when they gave me a new Spider-Man book, it wasn't an accident that in my entire run on that book, the characters in it were The Lizard, Wendigo, Morbius, and Ghost Rider," McFarlane explained. "I was just putting a bunch of monsters in there because I love drawing them. Now Spawn is full of angels and demons."

THANKING THE ACADEMY

While it has been a while since McFarlane spoke specifically about casting ideas for the film, early in the process he revealed that he was in talks with an Academy Award-winning actor who was interested in the part.

Given that Al Simmons is an African-American character, and has to be young enough to pull off some action scenes, that description whittled down the list of candidates, and fans started to put evidence together to suggest it could be Jamie Foxx.

At the time McFarlane made the comments, there were only seven living actors who would have fit the bill -- and Foxx was the one who had been most iterested in comic book roles. The actor played Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

That's a short list. Denzel, Foxx, Mahershala Ali and Cuba are the only ones really eligible. Forest Whitaker, Sidney Poitier and Louis Gossett Jr... unless we're getting in a time machine back to 1988, no way.

Given his rising star Mahershala Ali would actually be the most sensible choice and he only left Luke Cage early because it was conflicting with Moonlight's shooting schedule or he'd had stuck around longer.

Ali would be dope

 

[major pain]

$10m budget means this will be dumpster juice

 

[Broddie]

$10m budget means this will be dumpster juice

Fuck outta here. A lot can be done with a 10 million dollar budget. If you know how to use it. Of course McFarlane as a first time filmmaker does not.

 

[major pain]

$10m budget means this will be dumpster juice

Fuck outta here. A lot can be done with a 10 million dollar budget. If you know how to use it. Of course McFarlane as a first time filmmaker does not.

10m for a comic movie... Dumpster juice.

Scorcese could be the director.. and it will be ass cheeks

 

[genocidecutter]

Can't wait

 

[all original]

http://www.vulture.com/2017/07/todd-mcfarlane-wants-leonardo-dicaprio-to-be-in-spawn.html

 

[VIBE]

If McFarlane fucks this up...

 

[Lou Cypher]

Wonder how McFarland will get a big actor to do the film with just a 10 mil budget. Unless he has money saved himself to add to that 10 mil.

 

[BenjaminE]

Wonder how McFarland will get a big actor to do the film with just a 10 mil budget. Unless he has money saved himself to add to that 10 mil.

Yea, they'd have to agree to postponement of payment or percentage of ticket sales...

I don't see how an inexperienced first time director can make anything worthwhile with such a low budget, even if it a procedural drama like zodiac with supernatural elements... especially based on a property that was always an exercise in style over substance...

 

[Lou Cypher]

All I know is he plans on shooting this like a paranormal activity film which I guess takes a lot out of the cost of filming. Wouldn't expect to see much special effects. For years though he's been saying he needs a small budget so he must have some sort of idea. Still scared how adamant he is about being the director though. Maybe Kevin Smith taught him some shit lol.

If this does indeed turn out good though, props to him. With a budget that small I wonder if it will get a major release or just get released on demand or something.

 

[Broddie]

$10m budget means this will be dumpster juice

Fuck outta here. A lot can be done with a 10 million dollar budget. If you know how to use it. Of course McFarlane as a first time filmmaker does not.

10m for a comic movie... Dumpster juice.

Scorcese could be the director.. and it will be ass cheeks

Pure ignorance about filmmaking here.

Especially in an era where quality VFX are so advanced and cost effective you can spend less than 2 million on a decent big screen effects showcase. It's not about the money. It's more about the time.

 

[Broddie]

Wonder how McFarland will get a big actor to do the film with just a 10 mil budget. Unless he has money saved himself to add to that 10 mil.

Backend deals.

 

[Inglewood_B]

$10m budget means this will be dumpster juice

Fuck outta here. A lot can be done with a 10 million dollar budget. If you know how to use it. Of course McFarlane as a first time filmmaker does not.

10m for a comic movie... Dumpster juice.

Scorcese could be the director.. and it will be ass cheeks

Pure ignorance about filmmaking here.

Especially in an era where quality VFX are so advanced and cost effective you can spend less than 2 million on a decent big screen effects showcase. It's not about the money. It's more about the time.

Time is money. Unless he plan on using interns for his special effects, they gotta come out them pockets

 

[major pain]

$10m budget means this will be dumpster juice

Fuck outta here. A lot can be done with a 10 million dollar budget. If you know how to use it. Of course McFarlane as a first time filmmaker does not.

10m for a comic movie... Dumpster juice.

Scorcese could be the director.. and it will be ass cheeks

Pure ignorance about filmmaking here.

Especially in an era where quality VFX are so advanced and cost effective you can spend less than 2 million on a decent big screen effects showcase. It's not about the money. It's more about the time.

What are the last 3 comic movies made for under 10m?

 

[Broddie]

$10m budget means this will be dumpster juice

Fuck outta here. A lot can be done with a 10 million dollar budget. If you know how to use it. Of course McFarlane as a first time filmmaker does not.

10m for a comic movie... Dumpster juice.

Scorcese could be the director.. and it will be ass cheeks

Pure ignorance about filmmaking here.

Especially in an era where quality VFX are so advanced and cost effective you can spend less than 2 million on a decent big screen effects showcase. It's not about the money. It's more about the time.

What are the last 3 comic movies made for under 10m?

I don't know? Ghost World?

Here's your problem: you're looking at this like it's being approached on the scale of a Marvel or DC movie. It isn't.

It's being approached as a character driven thriller with do it yourself visual effects shots and visual gimmicks. Like Monsters or Annabelle or the first couple of Paranormal Activity movies all which were done at under 10 million. That type of production is Blumhouse's specialty.