It's confirmed! Jamie Foxx is now set to star in Todd McFarlane's adaptation of SPAWN. The newest movie to feature the character will mark McFarlane's first time behind the camera as the film's director, as he aims to share his version of the classic comic book personality he introduced to readers in May of 1992. In the past, McFarlane has said that the movie will be "dark and R-rated," with much more than "a couple F-bombs and a couple bare asses,” that were featured in Ryan Reynold's DEADPOOL.
According to Deadline, Foxx will star as Al Simmons, a member of a CIA black ops team who is betrayed twice. After being set up by his cohorts to be murdered with his corpse set aflame, Newman is double crossed in Hell. He is convinced to become a Hellspawn warrior in exchange for being able to be reunited with his wife. But Spawn finds himself stuck in a demonic creature shell, and that his wife moved on and married his best friend. So this is one pissed off antihero who attends to dispatching the scum of the city in good and evil battles that encompass earth, heaven and hell.
In talking about the film, McFarlane has stated that his version will not serve as an origin story for the anti-hero character. He's also stated that Spawn will appear in the feature in a limited capacity, much to the woe of the character's dedicated fanbase.
“The scariest movies, from Jaws to John Carpenter’s The Thing, or The Grudge and The Ring, the boogeyman doesn’t talk,” McFarlane told Deadline, who added that he'd received raised eyebrows from Blumhouse brass when pitching his idea. “It confuses people because of the comic book industry, and because they all default into their Captain America mindset and I keep saying, no, get into John Carpenter’s mindset or Hitchcock. This is not a man in a rubber suit, it’s not a hero that’s going to come and save the damsel. It’s none of that. At the end of the movie, I’m hoping that the audience will say either, is this a ghost that turns into a man, or is it a man that turns into a ghost? I’ve got a trilogy in mind here, and I’m not inclined in this first movie to do an origin story. I’m mentally exhausted from origin stories. Luckily, there’s a movie that just came out that helps my cause. In A Quiet Place, the first thing on screen is a card in black and white letters that says Day 89. It doesn’t care about what happened in those first 88 days. There are a couple headlines, but then we are on day 450. That movie doesn’t worry about explaining and giving all the answers. What it said in that case was, if you can hang on for a story of survival of this family, this movie will make complete sense for you."
McFarlane also told the outlet that he's looking to offer something new to long-existing fans of the character, a challenge, if you will: “If you want to see something creepy and powerful where you go, just what the hell was that? I’m not going to explain how Spawn does what he does; he is just going to do it. We’ll eventually do some of the background if we make a trilogy, but that’s not this first movie. The first movie is just saying, do you believe? And if you believe than that’s good because I’m hoping to take you for a long ride with this franchise.”
What are you thoughts about Foxx stepping into the role of Al Simmons? Are you excited to see a film starring the character with fancy new effects? Let us know in the comments section below.