ToddMcfarlane Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Now that our Superhero Tournament is nearing the home stretch, I've been looking at some of the 'losers' and thinking about all the costumed heroes that have fallen by the wayside over the years. But then I remembered that reboot fever is alive and well in Hollywood, and the latest victim is Todd McFarlane, who's apparently working on a new Spawn script according to various reports. (But isn't he always working on a new Spawn script?)

Considering how beloved Spawn is in the world of comic books, it really is a shame that he wound up with such a crappy movie -- and if the Rotten Tomatoes rating is any indication, time has not improved this flick in the eyes of fans. Luckily for us then that McFarlane will be starting from scratch, and by the sounds of things, thankfully, there will be far fewer fart jokes. McFarlane told Coming Soon's sources, "The story has been in my head for 7 or 8 years. The movie idea is neither a recap or continuation. It is a standalone story that will be R-rated. Creepy and scary."

McFarlane has only just started writing, so it could be some time before we see a finished product -- but, when we do, it's going to be a brand new Spawn. McFarlane told CS, "the tone of this 'Spawn' movie will be for a more older audience. Like the film 'Departed.'" Okay, that might be a bit of a strange comparison, but then again, I'm all for taking superheroes a little more seriously.

After the jump: the five 'masked avengers' I think deserved better on the big screen...

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.

Comics Continuum has put together great roundup of Todd McFarlane's panel appearance this weekend at New York's Comic-Con. Though the talk was wide-ranging, McFarlane spoke extensively about his upcoming movie projects, including both David Fincher's Torso (which McFarlane is producing) and a second Spawn film. Among other things, McFarlane confirmed that Torso is a long way off - when he finishes Zodiac, Fincher will go to work on another project (presumably Benjamin Button); after that wraps is the earliest Torso could get off the ground.

When it came to the new Spawn project, though, McFarlane spoke optimistically about starting production before the end of the year, and having the film in theaters by 2007. He's currently finishing up the script, which is less a sequel than a completely new story, focusing on the character of Twitch. Said McFarlane, "Spawn doesn't utter a word in this film. The guy will all the speaking parts is Twitch." Though the film is not yet associated with a studio, McFarlane (who will be making his directorial debut with the project) assured listeners that he has several interested studios, and that a deal will be done once the screenplay is finalized. With an expected budget of less than $10 million, the director envisions the film as very different from the original, which cost four times that amount. Instead of worrying much about effects, he hopes for something more simple: "a gritty, dark, scary, creepy movie."