Todd McFarlane insists his Spawn movie reboot is happening, starts making threats
Maybe the Spawn reboot was the friends we made along the way.
Wake up, honey. Todd McFarlane has said once again that his Spawn movie reboot is close to finally happening.
The thing about pop culture news is that sometimes it feels like you're stuck in a bizarre Groundhog Day-type of situation, and the most infamous example in recent memory might be that of the long-hyped big-screen Spawn reboot, which aims to right the wrongs of the not-very-good 1997 movie. Spawn creator Todd McFarlane has been trying incredibly hard to get it made for what feels like aeons now, but his rather empty updates (besides a couple of solid casting news) have slowly become more of a recurring gag.
During NYCC 2023, we learned that Blumhouse founder and CEO Jason Blum, one of the busiest and most successful people in the business at the moment, wanted to make the movie feel undoubtedly Blumhouse™ (hopefully like one of the good ones). As far as we know, screenwriters Scott Silver (Joker), Malcolm Spellman (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), and Matthew Mixon were hired to rewrite the screenplay in late 2022, and now McFarlane has told ComicBook.com that a new draft will be ready for him "this month."
The full quote makes him sounds a bit desperate and genuinely tired of waiting: "Obviously, Jason Blum is one of the better ones at getting things done. They tell me I get to read the script this month, so the email's going out this week to remind them that they promised me that. Something's gotta happen, something's gonna happen, I just know myself. Something's gonna happen because if I can't figure it out inside, I'll figure it out outside. I just know myself. But, hopefully, we can figure out a deal that keeps all the parties that have been involved over the years involved."
He also added (in what feels like a soft threat to the parties involved) that he's willing to try his luck elsewhere and outside the traditional Hollywood studio system if this iteration of the project doesn't take off: "So I'm trying to see if we can make the right deal within the norm of the Hollywood structure. If not, there have been plenty of examples, actually, a couple big ones last year, where people went outside the normal channels and succeeded." Honestly, as tired as we are of hearing about the troubled development of this movie, we can't blame him.
As of now, the tentative Spawn reboot must find a director too, though at this point we wouldn't be surprised if McFarlane decided to jump in and captain the ship himself, as some past rumors suggested. The project does have, however, a star in Jamie Foxx, who surprisingly remains attached after being recruited all the way back in 2018.