Todd McFarlane on Spawn movie and Sam & Twitch TV series with Kevin Smith

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

It's been twenty years since the release of the first SPAWN film, and Todd McFarlane has been quite passionate about giving the character the reboot he deserves, and he'll finally get his chance now that Blumhouse Productions has come onboard. At New York Comic-Con, Todd McFarlane said that production on the "dark and R-rated" SPAWN would get underway next February, and McFarlane recently spoke with Yahoo to offer up a few more details.

Todd McFarlane, who will be writing and directing the film, sent off the last of Blumhouse Productions' notes just a few days ago, which means that budgeting will soon be moving forward. "We’ll likely put that money together in short order, because a hundred people want to give me money, and I’ve got lots in my pocket. Once we put the money together, we’ll go to Hollywood and start selling it as a pre-distribution deal that would guarantee us a release date we can all agree upon, and a certain number of screens," said McFarlane. "Those are the two things you need out of Hollywood, because they control the distribution channels and the marketing. I’m naïve enough to think that even if all the major studios say no, Universal will say yes, because they don’t want Jason Blum going anywhere else with this property!" In regards to the 1997 SPAWN film, McFarlane wound up not having as much creative control as he had hoped, but he's grateful that his experiences with Jason Blum have been quite different and very supportive.

In my limited time with him, I would say that he strikes me as a guy who doesn’t overthink. He’s just like, “Let’s go and get it done.” He’s very supportive of going, “Hey, Todd, here are our notes, but at the end of the day, it’s your vision. We work for you.” My job isn’t to be egotistical, my job is to go keep pushing Jason. I just sent Blumhouse an email saying that I restructured five scenes in my script, not because they asked me to, but because their voice has been in the back of my head, and it keeps pushing me. I don’t want to be lazy or blinded by my own words and vision. The latest script is 114 pages, and when I first finished it, that number was 167. So I’ve gotten 50 pages out of it and tightened it up. His job is to encourage people, especially first-time directors, put a blanket of good people around them and then say, “Let’s make it.”

McFarlane added that the new film will not be an origin story, saying that he's okay without an origin. "Just give me a compelling story, scare the shit out of me from time to time, and I'm along for the ride." Other than the characters themselves, the story will be all original and won't be derived from any of the story-lines from the comics. Unlike its predecessor, the new film will also make use of practical effects as much as possible.

I may be proven wrong, but I can see 85 to 90 percent of what I want to do being done practically. There are a couple of moments where I need to show bigness where I won’t be able to pull it off with practical effects. But not head-to-toe digital stuff; I don’t want to go there. I also just don’t have the budget. To get there, the budget goes up, and I don’t get to be in the director’s chair. I keep the budget low, nobody’s got risk apart from marketing.

The upcoming reboot isn't the only SPAWN-related project which Todd McFarlane is working on, as he's also collaborating with Kevin Smith on a Sam & Twitch TV series. The pair recently met with the heads of AMC and BBC America and McFarlane revealed that they'll be making their final decision in November. "If they do say yes, our ask is for the full season," McFarlane said." Not just a pilot, but can you commit to eight episodes so we can just get it going? Kevin did his thing with them, and I did mine, so we’ll see where it goes. We both have good vibes on it. It’s going to have a different voice and tone than what I would do personally, but it’s still part of the Spawn-verse. They hired Kevin Smith to be Kevin Smith, so my job is to get Kevin Smith unleashed for this and hope the audience is there for it." I've never been a huge SPAWN fan, but I'd imagine that there are plenty of folks out there who have been eagerly awaiting a proper big-screen adaptation of the character, but, after all these years, does SPAWN still have what it takes to be a success?