With such genre luminaries as Jason Blum and Todd McFarlane involved in the long drawn-out Spawn reboot, fans rightly may wonder: What’s going on here?
Well, Blum–the head man at Blumhouse Productions–this week had some promising (if not thrilling) news for long-suffering horror lovers, as reported by movieweb.com. Progress is being made on the remake of the disappointing 1997 Michael Jai White-led original film. Albeit slowly.
Blum said the planned reboot will be “very different…very edgy. What excited me about it is that Spawn is kind of the last great unexploited comic. So that sounds like an amazing opportunity. It’s taken longer than I hoped it would have to get the story right, but we’re still working on it.”
McFarlane is hard at work on the screenplay, and is ready to jump into the director’s chair as well. The comic book legend, who is aiming for an R rating for this film, said big names are being lined up for the juicy roles.
“I can tell you right now there is momentum going on with Spawn,” McFarlane said. “And we’re adding talent–big, big talent–that we haven’t announced yet. I wish I could, but I can’t.”
That “talent” may include Jamie Foxx in the title role, and Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye of the Avengers franchise) as a homicide detective who crosses path with the Hellspawn. Nothing is set in stone yet, but fans can surely hope.
Spawn–brought to four-color life by McFarlane in Spawn No. 1 (May 1992) from Image Comics–also has appeared in an HBO animated series (1997-1999) and as a popular action figure from McFarlane Toys, in addition to the original 1997 film.
The anti-hero had his origins as trained assassin Al Simmons, who was murdered by his employer and former friend Chapel. He then sells his soul to Malebolgia, one of the rulers of Hell, in order to once again see his wife Wanda. But Malebolgia has other plans and sends Simmons back to Earth as a powerful Hellspawn with no memory, ripe to do his bidding.
Keep reading Horror News Network for all future updates on this Spawn reboot.
