Todd McFarlane, the creator of the hit ’90s comic Spawn, has been talking about making a new movie based on his signature character for a long time. Five years ago, Blumhouse had McFarlane slotted to direct a new Spawn himself, based on a script that he wrote. The following summer, Jamie Foxx signed on to play the lead hero in the movie. (The original Spawn’s star, Michael Jai White, has voiced somewhat interesting thoughts about the film.)
After at least five years of development, Blumhouse still doesn’t have a Spawn film to show for it. So now things are moving in a new direction. The Hollywood Reporter says new writers are being brought in to write a new script for the film. Scott Silver, who co-wrote Joker, Malcolm Spellman, who worked on Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the upcoming Captain America: New World Order, and Matt Mixom are now collaborating on the script.
As for whether McFarlane remains the director of the project, he told THR they will likely look for someone else to take over:
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? The answer is, ‘of course.’ Let’s keep the momentum going.
Foxx remains attached to the project, although the status of his previously announced co-star, Jeremy Renner, is still up in the air. The Spawn comic has been published by Image since 1992; the original film was released by New Line in 1997. There’s also been an animated series of the character on HBO.
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