Todd McFarlane took to Facebook to announce that Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx will be stepping into the titular role in the long rumored Spawn film. McFarlane posted pictures of himself and Foxx, and had this to say in this post:
Just hanging out with… SPAWN!!!!!! OFFICIAL Spawn MovieANNOUNCEMENT!
YES folks..you heard right!! We’ve cast SPAWN in the upcoming Spawn Movie produced by Blumhouse.I’m excited to tell YOU good people that the TALENTED, Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx has accepted the role of SPAWN!
This is the first BIG step in more exciting announcements to come and, as promised, I will keep YOU all updated first on my Page right here.
FULL STORY HERE: http://bit.ly/2LFLKJV
LET’S GET IT TRENDING with the hashtag #spawnmovie
Enjoy.
TODD
McFarlane has had Foxx in mind for the role for a few years now:
“Jamie came to my office five years ago, and he had an idea about Spawn and we talked about it. I never forgot him, and when I was writing this script, you sort of plug people in, and he was my visual guy and I never let go of him. When I got done and my agents and everybody was talking about what actor, I said, I’m going to Jamie first and until he says no I don’t want to think about anyone else because I’ve never had anyone else in my head. Luckily, he hadn’t forgotten either. I said, ‘Hey, I’m back to talk about Spawn again, and he was like, let’s do it.’”
Foxx’s statement recalls the meeting and demonstrates how excited he is for the project:
“A few years back I flew out to Arizona to meet the man behind one of the most incredible comic book characters in the universe… Todd McFarlane. He was taken aback when I told him with the enthusiasm of a young child that more than anything I wanted to put my name in the hat to embody his beloved character Spawn…. I told him no one would work harder than me if given the opportunity… well… the opportunity is here!! I’m humbled and ready to transform… and to top things off the young Jason Blum is lending his brilliance to the project! Time to be great!!!! #Spawn.”
McFarlane’s Spawn comic reached the peak of its popularity in the 90’s, and spawned (pun intended) a 1997 film staring Michael Jai White , John Leguizamo and Martin Sheen, which performed moderately but received poor reviews, as well an Emmy Award winning HBO animated series.
The new film will mark the renowned comic book writer and artist’s directorial debut. McFarlane says that we can expect a relatively quiet Spawn this time around:
“The scariest movies, from Jaws to John Carpenter’s The Thing, or The Grudge and The Ring, the boogeyman doesn’t talk. It confuses people because of the comic book industry, and because they all default into their Captain America mindset and I keep saying, no, get into John Carpenter’s mindset or Hitchcock. This is not a man in a rubber suit, it’s not a hero that’s going to come and save the damsel. It’s none of that. At the end of the movie, I’m hoping that the audience will say either, is this a ghost that turns into a man, or is it a man that turns into a ghost? I’ve got a trilogy in mind here, and I’m not inclined in this first movie to do an origin story. I’m mentally exhausted from origin stories. Luckily, there’s a movie that just came out that helps my cause. In A Quiet Place, the first thing on screen is a card in black and white letters that says Day 89. It doesn’t care about what happened in those first 88 days. There are a couple headlines, but then we are on day 450. That movie doesn’t worry about explaining and giving all the answers. What it said in that case was, if you can hang on for a story of survival of this family, this movie will make complete sense for you.”
McFarlane also says that he will not be spending any screen time on Spawn’s origin:
“If you want to see something creepy and powerful where you go, just what the hell was that? I’m not going to explain how Spawn does what he does; he is just going to do it. We’ll eventually do some of the background if we make a trilogy, but that’s not this first movie. The first movie is just saying, do you believe? And if you believe than that’s good because I’m hoping to take you for a long ride with this franchise.”
Source: Deadline