Comic Book movies are all the rage today in today’s day and age and one has to wonder “Whatever happened to Spawn?” Bloody Disgusting caught up with creator Todd McFarlane about the possibility of one of the 90’s most popular characters returning to the silver screen.
Bloody Disgusting says
“I’ve always seen Spawn as being cut from a different cloth. It’s more of an urban, psychological story that’s being told. The answer I’ve given the last few years is that Spawn should be a small-budget movie in which the only thing that’s out of the ordinary is this thing that intellectually we know as Spawn and there would only be a handful of people that see it. I call it “it” because it never talks, it’s just a force of nature. Really, the story revolves around the people who are trying to decide: “Is the ghost alive? Is the shadow actually moving?” When I give that pitch, some of the executives scratch their heads. To a lot of people, a movie where the [title] character doesn’t talk doesn’t make any sense. There have been a few movies like that. “Alien,” you know, that guy didn’t say much. Or ”Jaws,” the shark didn’t have too many speaking lines. “Jaws” is the closest example, the movie wasn’t about the shark, it’s about the people chasing the shark.”
When I saw the original movie I thought it was the best superhero movie I’d ever seen. I was young, (really young), and almost immediately changed my mind after reflecting on the thought. I began recognizing the mis-steps of the film and realized that I really didn’t enjoy the movie as much as I fell for the hype behind the movie.
I think Todd is right about Spawn benefitting from going in a different direction aside from the usual “super-villain” route but I am hesitant to believe a word about a new movie coming out. The last movie was a heaping pile of crap that managed to take advantage of a generation to rake in almost $90 million dollars with a $40 million dollar budget. Today a movie with those kind of figures would have been put back in the assembly line to push out sequels but for one reason or another Spawn was an exception.
I’m skeptical but hopeful about the possibility to see Spawn return to theaters. Todd has mentioned Spawn’s return to film several times in the past that never came into fruition, including the idea about him self financing a movie in order to maintain a level of control over the final product. I truly believe that there is a class somewhere taught by George Lucas called “How to milk a property” and Todd must have sat front row learning how to milk that cow until the end of time. Anybody else interested in the possibility of a new Spawn Film?
