I grew up worshipping Todd McFarlane‘s art and took part in celebrating the launch of Image Comics with his Spawn. I own over a decade’s worth of his comics, I was there opening night for New Line Cinema’s Spawn adaptation, and loved the darker take that was the animated series. And yet, I find the forthcoming reboot incredibly suspect. McFarlane has been speaking this film into existence for years and was lucky to find support in Blumhouse, who could use their power to distribute through Universal Pictures or other various avenues. In an instant, it went from just “talk” to reality.
Oscar winner Jamie Foxx has since signed on to star as the title character, being designed by “The Walking Dead’s” Greg Nicotero, with Jeremy Renner agreeing to the role of Twitch. Yet, Foxx is said to have barely any speaking lines with Spawn being compared to the shark in Jaws. He’s also going anti-superhero with the new adaptation, aiming to make something so dark that it will make children cry.
He’s doubling down with the promise of something that’s not only joyless, but also ugly. I’m not exactly sure that’s what any of us want.
“There’s no joy… There’s gonna be no fun lines in it, and it’s just gonna be this dark, ugly two hours worth of movie, which is essentially what a lot of supernatural/horror movies are anyway,” McFarlane told Nerdist.
“There’s not a lot of funny in them,” he added. “And that seems to be a weird hurdle for a lot of people in this city to get over because they sort of go into a superhero/Avengers default all the time.”
As much as I’d rather the director achieve his vision than have some random studio executive turn Spawn into some pandering, kid-friendly, algorithm-based superhero film, none of this is syncing with me. Still, I appreciate that McFarlane is sticking to his guns and keeping his artistic integrity in check. I just hope he realizes that even the most dire of horror films need an element of fun, otherwise it just ends up feeling callous and mean-spirited. Let’s see if he can even get this off the ground. Watch this spot for further updates.
