The path of Todd McFarlane’s reboot of the “Spawn” franchise on the big screen has been a long and winding one. In the last year or so though, things were looking up with the hiring of Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner for the film which was setup at Blumhouse Productions.
McFarlane is supposed to write and direct the project which he previously confirmed will be dark and very R-rated, and can do that by keeping the budget tight (at just $10-12 million) in order to move forward. McFarlane himself seemed to be at least partially financing the project, but this week he tells
ComicBook.com that things have stalled as everyone involved has yet to agree on the script:
“The money’s sitting on the sidelines ready to go. I just need to get everyone that wants to put in money to shake their heads to the same script. As you can imagine, everyone has a slightly different version of it in their head. You just go and trying to appease a handful of people while not giving in to what it is that I’m trying to do myself. Because if I have to change it too much, I’ll just walk away from it all.”
In the comics, Spawn is a human-turned-Hellspawn who possesses superhuman strength and speed, and near immortality. The project would mark the third major screen adaptation of the character following 1997’s not well-regarded live-action film from New Line, and 1999’s acclaimed HBO adult animated series.