The 1997 Spawn movie adaptation hinged its success on New Line Cinema’s insistence that it be PG-13, but “still retain its darkness.” While it was a financial win, it wasn’t received well by fans and critics, which left its sequel/reboot in developmental hell (how ironic) for over 15 years. Now, finally, Spawn looks like he’ll be returning to the big screen, and this adaptation will be a lot more like the HBO series than the movie. Yes, Todd McFarlane has finished the long-rumored new Spawn script, and he’s hoping to direct a comic book movie that won’t be anything like a comic book movie.
“I’ve finished the script, and I’m in the process of editing. It’s 183 pages, and [producers] usually like 120. I still think it’s going to end up being about 140, because I’m putting in details for myself.”
This is because McFarlane hopes to direct this small, supernatural thriller himself. This isn’t going to be the big budget superhero movie we’ve come to expect over the last decade:
“I’d put it more into horror/suspense/supernatural genre. If you take the movie The Departed meets Paranormal Activity, something like that. I want to keep it small, keep it tight, so they’ll let me direct it!”
In the background, there’s this thing moving around, this boogeyman. That boogeyman just happens to be something that you and I, intellectually, know is Spawn. Will he look like he did in the first movie? No. Will he have a supervillain he fights? No. He’s going to be the spectre, the ghost.”
So, in other words, this will be the darkest comic book adaptation since The Crow, but with Spawn creeping in the shadows? Maybe the film will follow detectives Twitch and Sam while Spawn operates in their periphery.
(Via ComicBook)
