The success thatVenomhas enjoyed at the box office may help Todd McFarlane finally get hisSpawnmovie made. After years of working on a script, McFarlane finally partnered with Blumhouse Productions last year to bring his R-rated vision of aSpawnreboot to life. McFarlane co-created the character ofVenomfor Marvel Comics and createdSpawnfor his own company, Image Comics. But still, no movie has materialized, as it’s proven troublesome to get financing together. However, McFarlane is confident that will change, or that it at least should change.
In a recent interview,Todd McFarlane, who will make his directorial debut onSpawn, was asked about the status of the project. The comic book writer, artist, toy maker and, now filmmaker, hasn’t been shy about updating his fans every step of the way. This time, he explained that they’re still trying to get the money to make the movie, which hasn’t been easy, despite the fact that virtually every out-of-the-box comic book property out there has succeeded,Venomincluded. Here’s what McFarlane had to say about it.
“Putting the financing together and trying to convince the city that you’re able to go into various corners of superhero movies genres.Venomis a perfect example, that you can take an ‘anti-hero character’ who was originally created as a villain and make them this sort of do-gooder. Even though he doesn’t play by the rules, you can make a billion dollars. I’m asking them, what’s the movie, whether it’s Deadpool or Guardians of the Galaxy or Suicide Squad or The Joker,… Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Daredevil…which one is it that’s failing? None. So that’s what I’m trying to tell Hollywood. Why is Spawn going into a dark corner that doesn’t follow the norms? Why is that one going to be the odd fit that’s not going to swim upstream? Of course it will. If we keep the budget small, of course it will sell, and now we get to say, ‘From the co-creator of Venom’ on top of it. Cool.”
He has a point. Thebubble for comic book moviessimply isn’t popping, despite many continuing to insist that it will.Venom, despite being trashed by critics, has grossed $855 million worldwide. And that movie had a $100 million budget to worry about.
Spawn, on the other hand, is aiming for amuch lower budgetof around $10 million, meaning it would have to make far less money in order to become profitable. And Todd McFarlane already has Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx attached to star in the titular role, with Oscar-nominee Jeremy Renner attached to star in the lead as Twitch Williams, a cop character from his comic book series.
Blumhouse also has a tremendous track record. Just this year theysuccessfully revived the Halloween franchise, in addition to producing hits such asUpgradeandInsidious: The Last Key. Who’s to say they wouldn’t do very well with a horror-based comic book movie franchise? But it seems, for the time being, that Hollywood is still nervous to hand over that kind of money to a first-time director for what will be a very non-traditional comic book adaptation. Hopefully, this gets sorted out sooner rather than later.Spawndoes not yet have a release date. This news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
