Growing up, Todd McFarlane was one of my favorite comic book artists. It was bliss when he formed Image and took all of the best in the industry under one umbrella. Then, he created an action figure line to create high quality toys based on his “Spawn” comics, which segued into his Movie Maniacs line that paved the way for NECA’s world domination.

But with all of the money and various business ventures, time has thinned out for the artistic visionary. Everything was delayed, for many years, and a lot of projects never even came into fruition. It’s nice to know that McFarlane cares enough to keep his fingers prints all over his work, which is why hearing about a new Spawn feature for the better part of a decade isn’t annoying.

The 1997 New Line Cinema adaptation of his comic is one of the worst movies ever made, so it’s understandable that he’s doing it or nobody will. I just wish he’d do whatever it took to move the needle a little quicker than it has been.

ComicBook has a positive update that quickly goes south. Here, let’s take a look.

“I’ve finished the script, and I’m in the process of editing,” McFarlane told ComicBook when asked for an update. “It’s 183 pages, and [producers] usually like 120. I still think it’s going to end up being about 140, because I’m putting in details for myself.”

The good news is that the script is finally complete. The bad news is that, since he wants to do it himself, the budget’s going to be super tight. This means compromised vision, which is also detailed by the addition of the need to trim nearly 45 pages out of the overly long screenplay.

Even at 140 pages we’re talking a long movie, and I fear the next Spawn, which McFarlane says he will direct, could end up back in movie purgatory.

For those who have never read a “Spawn” comic, here’s the plot breakdown, courtesy of Wiki:

Lt. Colonel Albert Francis ″Al″ Simmons, USMC (Ret.), was a highly trained Marine who was at his most successful point when he saved the President from an attempted assassination. He was promoted to a high level within the CIA devoted to black ops. Once there, he began to question the morality of what his agency was doing.

Jason Wynn hired Bruce Stinson (codenamed Chapel), Simmons’ friend and partner, to kill him. In a blazing inferno, Simmons was killed and his soul sent to Hell, because he had knowingly killed innocents while working for the CIA.

Simmons made a deal with an evil being known as Malebolgia: in exchange for his soul, he would get to see once again his wife, Wanda. However, when Simmons returned to the human world, five years had passed, and he had been transformed into a demonic creature with little memory of his former life. After regaining his memories, he sought out his wife, only to find she had moved on and married his best friend, Terry Fitzgerald, and that they now had a daughter named Cyan.

After this event, the Violator appeared, and revealed to Simmons the purpose of his resurrection. They fought, but the battle was interrupted by Malebolgia.