Todd McFarlane has been teasing his Spawn movie for years now and over that time, he’s convinced an enviable array of talent to sign on. So far, he’s got Jamie Foxx set to play the title role, Jeremy Renner as co-star, and one of the best practical visual effects guys in the business, The Walking Dead’s resident gorehound Greg Nicotero. Unfortunately, however, the only thing he hasn’t been able to get on board is a major studio and as of right now, the movie is still waiting to be greenlit.
That might all change though if McFarlane’s latest statements bear fruit. During a recent interview, he teased some potentially big casting news, saying:
“About a month ago, I had a big fish. I just about got him on deck, right? But we lost him and those are always frustrating because whenever you got the fish out of the water, pull them up on deck and the line breaks. We got an offer out to, I think, a bigger fish. So, there weren’t too many bigger than the first guy, but anyway, we’ll see. If I could’ve got the last guy, it would’ve been a home run. If I can get this guy, it will be a grand slam. This one will blow up the Internet. So, we’ll see.”
I hope he catches his fish, whoever it turns out to be. I’ve had a torch burning for this project for years now and it’s faintly heartbreaking that every time genuine progress seems to be made, something comes along to spoil it.
Things looked great when the success of Joker opened up the market for R-rated comic book movies. According to McFarlane, studios were suddenly hungry for darker comic book fare and Spawn was ready to go. Finally, all the pieces were falling into place, so much so that McFarlane promised that the film would begin production this year. And then came the Coronavirus and now, nothing is certain in the world of movies and TV.
I hope that Spawn happens though, as this is such an obvious passion project for McFarlane that it’d be unjust if it came to nothing. But if these delays are going to stretch on, maybe he should consider crowdfunding the thing.