New Spawn Movie Picks Up Joker Writer, Todd McFarlane Mercifully Won’t Direct

The new Blumhouse Spawn movie is happening, damn it. Sure, it’s been a long slow slog over the past years since Jamie Foxx was first attached to the film, but series creator Todd McFarlane is going to make this movie if it kills him. To that end, he’s got some new writers to make the Spawn screenplay into something that’s a bit bigger and possibly higher-budget. Scott Silver, Malcolm Spellman, and newcomer Matt Mixon will partner to write a new screenplay for the Spawn movie, reworking the original screenplay that McFarlane wrote himself.

That’s some hefty comic book writing power coming onto a movie many saw as a low-budget also-ran in the comic book film space, as McFarlane has struggled to bring his character back to the big screen since 1997. Scott Silver wrote Joker, not only the most successful R-rated superhero movie ever, but the most successful R-rated movie period. McFarlane says that he saw Joker and just figured he’d reach out and see if Silver wanted to write for Spawn, and the screenwriter said yes. Joining him is Spellman, who penned The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and will co-write Captain America: New World Order, and upcomer Mixon, who doesn’t have any superhero credits to his name but is a hot ticket in Hollywood at the moment. That puts a lot of clout behind the film, which could lead to the R-rated superhero flick having a bigger budget from Blumhouse.

The writing changes mean other changes as well. Jeremy Renner was attached to the movie alongside Foxx, but it appears that his character may not make the cut after the final screenplay is turned in. His involvement in the film is on hold until that becomes clear, but Foxx is still attached. McFarlane has also said that he probably won’t direct the movie anymore, which is almost certainly a good thing.

“If we’ve got an A-list actor, A-list producers, A-list writers, then do you want to shoot for A-list directors, A-list cinematographers?” McFarlane said. “The answer is, ‘of course.’ Let’s keep the momentum going.”

There’s still no release date, or even window, for the new Spawn movie, but it has a great writer or three on its team now.