Comics
Todd McFarlane Says ‘Spawn’ Remake Could Shoot In 2014, But Probably Not
Todd McFarlane has been talking about rebooting Spawn for the big screen for years, and apparently he’s now closer than ever to reaching that goal. The Gate reports that McFarlane is close to completing the script, and is hopeful that production can begin as early as next year. A 2014 production date seems ambitious at best, but that would likely give the film a 2015 release date alongside superhero blockbusters such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the yet to be named Superman/Batman movie. I would love to see Spawn contend with the big two, but if I had to put my money on it, I’d say Rob Liefeld’s movie about his career at Image Comics has a better chance of being made in 2014.
“The thing that keeps slowing it down is that the negotiation I’ve done is I write, produce, direct, but I’ve got to push a lot of my other endeavors off to the side so I can just get tunnel vision on it,” McFarlane told The Gate website during the Toronto Fan Expo this weekend. “Everybody at my company is now going, ‘We’ve got to find Todd the time to finish all this.’”
He went on, “I think it’s a quick shoot. It’s not going to be a giant budget with a lot of special effects, it’s going to be more of a horror movie and a thriller movie, not a superhero one. I’ve got so many people phoning now that I’ve got to get it done. I’ve made some promises to people this year.”
“We’ve had some big names… come into the office and go, ‘We want to be in it,'” McFarlane continued, “Sometimes they give me their pitch, I give them my pitch, I go, ‘We can get in it, this is how it goes,’ and so those types of actors–Academy Award guys–they’re going, ‘As soon as that scripts done, we’re going.’ So once we get this thing done, we’ll get it off the ground with some big names.”
But when will this actually happen? McFarlane says, “[The producers] want me to deliver the script by the end of the year,” he said, “which would basically mean we’d be shooting next year. So, that’s the goal right now.”
With Jamie Foxx interested, it’s a possibility, and while I really want this to happen, I’m not getting my hopes up.
The supernatural world of Korean folk horror movie Exhuma grows larger with the arrival of prequel spinoff webtoon Maengjong this weekend, Variety reports today.
Naver Webtoon debuts Maengjong on May 30.
The series hails from Haemuri (Olgami) and will trace the high school origins of how shaman duo Hwarim and Bonggil, played by Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun in the 2024 film, came together to face occultish threats.
The story is set to begin when “Hwarim, who has been concealing her identity following a childhood encounter with a snake spirit called Jin, crosses paths with Bonggil at their school.”
Variety notes that Exhuma director Jang Jae-hyun participated in the project’s early concept stage.
“We are presenting ‘Maengjong,’ a new series capturing the appeal of the horror-occult genre, ahead of the full summer season,” said Lee Jeong-geun, Naver Webtoon’s Korea webtoon content leader. “With the high school story of Hwarim and Bonggil, who left a strong impression in the film ‘Exhuma,’ enhanced by Haemuri’s characteristic tense direction, we expect it will be a welcome work for genre fans.”
“It is meaningful that the spin-off story of ‘Exhuma,’ loved by many audiences, expands by meeting the new grammar of webtoon,” said Lee Hyeon-jeong, managing director of the film business division at Showbox, which distributed the film. “We hope it will be a fresh experience for both film fans and webtoon readers.”
Exhuma was a breakout hit in 2024, becoming the first Korean occult film to surpass 10 million ticket buyers and the country’s highest-grossing film of the year. I wrote in my review that “the intricately woven Exhuma delivers one of the year’s biggest surprises in horror so far.”
The bond between Hwarim and Bonggil was one of the film’s highlights, making this prequel webtoon a must for fans.
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