McFarlane Talks 'Spawn' Sequel -- Again

Yes, we've had similar headlines before. The first time we heard from Todd McFarlane about a second Spawn movie was in 2005. Then we heard again from him in 2006. It's now 2007 -- has been for awhile -- and it's time to hear from McFarlane again -- just in time for Comic-Con (ponder all this new info while waiting in those long lines). Now, I make no secret about my disappointment and hatred for the first Spawn adaptation (especially the bad special effects), but this new interview with MTV has me really intrigued about the sequel or reboot or whatever he wants to call it.

First of all, let me point out that we've already heard the strange idea that in Spawn 2 the title character will not talk. We also already heard McFarlane cite Jaws (as well as Frankenstein and King Kong) as how the movie will play out. But there are a lot of new bits in MTV's interview. One is that McFarlane, who has now begun the screenplay, failed to get a studio interested -- he tried again with New Line and then with Sony -- and so he is doing the thing independently. He even calls it his "Passion of the Anti-Christ" after Mel Gibson's passion project. Apparently nobody in Hollywood wants an R-rated adaptation of such a popular comic book in which the 'superhero' doesn't talk, and he isn't even a superhero. McFarlane says that not only will Spawn be silent, we won't even see his costume or cape because he'll always be in the shadows.

We fans of the comic will get some "wink-wink" stuff in the movie, but otherwise it is a new movie for people unfamiliar with the character. There is no origin or Al Simmons at all. Basically it's just a spooky horror movie for kids like his daughter. But it will be more real, according to McFarlane. He says the style will be more Crash than 300 and that the story will be like L.A. Confidential or The Godfather with "this little boogeyman in it -- a moving shadow." Hmm. I can't wait to see the end result, because that sounds both brilliant and stupid at the same time.