Who’s up for a game of superhero musical chairs? Blumhouse‘s Spawn is making moves today by revealing the new team of writers assigned to the long-gestating reboot. Signing their souls over to Satan to pen the screenplay is a trio of creators, including Scott Silver (Joker), Malcolm Spellman (Captain America: New World Order), and Matthew Mixom (Yesterday Was Everything).
Spawn creator Todd McFarlane expressed interest in relaunching the character on the silver screen in 2017. After making arrangements with Blumhouse and attaching Jamie Foxx to star, Spawn has experienced several delays in development. McFarlane wrote the script’s first draft and is interested in directing the feature. We hear that Silver, Spellman, and Mixom will draft a new screenplay based on McFarlane’s ideas. While McFarlane is still interested in occupying the director’s chair, he admits he might not be the right person for the job.
“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 confessed to The Hollywood Reporter. “The answer is, ‘of course.’ Let’s keep the momentum going.”
Not to say that McFarlane isn’t up to the task, but if Blumhouse wants to match the experience of their writers, finding a different director could be the smart move. Every studio wants their superhero movie to perform like gangbusters at the box office, so it stands to reason that a seasoned director is better suited to the task.
Mark A.Z. Dippé directed 1997’s Spawn. The movie starring Michael Jai White, John Leguizamo, and Martin Sheen didn’t set the world on fire, though it’s considered by many to be a cult classic. Questionable effects plague the film, but a killer soundtrack and delightful performance from Leguizamo as the villainous Clown make it a fun ride.
A report from Deadline states that 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 his wife moves on and marries 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 the earth, heaven, and Hell.
Additionally, there’s a chance Jeremy Renner is still attached to Spawn, but his participation depends on the new script and availability. Initially, Spawn was going to be a low-budget affair, but with Blumhouse and other high-profile creatives coming aboard, the budget is likely to increase significantly.
Are you excited about Blumhouse’s plans to reboot Spawn with Todd McFarlane? Let us know in the comments.
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