It really does feel like, at this point, Spawn creator, Todd McFarlane, has been to hell and back in bringing Albert Francis Simmons' story back to the big screen in a brand new story. Names like Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner have been linked to the project, which has seemingly been stalled by the demon Malebolgia or due to development delays. Now, though, the comic book writer has provided some promising news that should get fans a little bit excited than they were over the last few years. After chugging along, McFarlane has now revealed to Comic Book that a director is almost in place to give Spawn the cinematic shot he deserves, finally, and the hope is it'll be a horrifying one. That being said, Spawn's maker is set on not giving the game away too soon, if only because of past announcements that haven't quite developed into anything.
“I don’t think we’ll announce when he signs on. I think what we’ll do is we’ll announce when we have the script and we’ve got the buyer. Instead of doing what I’ve done before, every time we hire somebody, I announce it, is to just go, ‘It sold with this director, writer, these people attached as actors, boom, boom, boom, this is what we’re gonna make,’ that would be it,” McFarlane explained. “But the contract went out, literally, last week. I’m here to tell you it’s an A[-list] director, from my perspective. I go, ‘Wow,’ we keep getting lucky with Spawn. The people who are excited about it are people that are in the top tier, from my perspective, so it’s like, ‘Wow. Okay, cool.’ So we’ll see.”
The update comes almost a year after producer Jason Blum announced that the first script draft for the new film was complete and was titled 'King Spawn,' sharing the same name as the comic book run, but not sharing the same story. Thankfully, even with these bumps in the development road, Blumhouse has backed McFarlane's project, and the hope is that they'll apply their signature horror to bringing the hellbound hero to life, if and when this secretive filmmaker signs on.
“Again, fingers crossed he wants to do something creepy, too. We’re just jibing. I’m supposed to be getting a pit stop from him here in the next month and when we do that, then the script goes and hopefully we sign whatever. We’ll see," added McFarlane. "But we’re constantly trying to move that thing forward. We haven’t stopped. It’s constantly going. And, if you talk to Jason [Blum], him and his crew are pushing it too, right? They want this thing to happen as much as I do.”
Who knows? Things might finally be warming up for Spawn in the best way possible. In the meantime, here are some of the biggest superhero movies coming to the screen soon.
