If there is one thing in this world that Todd McFarlane is sure of, it’s that a new Spawn movie is going to get made. The director has been talking about it for years, but nothing ever seems to happen. The most recent attempt to get the film going, however, seemed far more on track and there were even rumors of Jamie Foxx playing Spawn. That, it appears, has fallen through.
In an interview focusing on Spawn’s inclusion in Mortal Kombat 11, McFarlane let a bit too much information slip when asked about the film. “Last week I got some discouraging news,” he told Shoryuken. “We had an Academy Award-winning guy who was going to do the movie with us, but he fell off. We had people willing to fund the movie as long as we had this guy attached but schedules were conflicting, and things had to change. That’s how close we are to getting this thing off the ground.”
Now, this is obviously not confirmation that Foxx was going to play Spawn, but considering the unfortunately limited amount of black Oscar-winning actors in the age range to play the comic book anti-hero, it also kind of does. Foxx’s name would definitely bring plenty of funding and clout to the film and was probably the reason the movie actually seemed tangible this time around — along with the fact that comic book movies are Hollywood’s bread and butter right now.
McFarlane seems to believe that the movie is now back at square one, but he has not given up hope on it. He went on to say the following:
Hollywood is a different place right now; they understand the value of what Spawn can bring to a reasonable budget. Joker lit the fire, up until now it felt like I was pushing up this bolder on my own, but now there are others joining me who know that these stories should be told.
I have very few demands for the movie. It has to be Rated R, there’s no debate around that. With the story I want to tell, my intent goes back to that Spawn Cloud. I am less concerned about what happens in the movie as long as Spawn is ‘cool’ and ‘badass.’ The last demand is that I am the director. That’s it. Everything else is up for conversation.
While those demands might seem few in number, they could be pretty big hurdles without a big name attached to the movie. Yes, R-rated superhero movies have proven to be money makers, but Hollywood might once again be skittish about them after Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey flopped. And while McFarlane is a prolific writer and producer, he has never directed a feature film, so giving him a budget of any sort is a pretty big risk for a studio.
