Fans who have been eagerly awaiting an update on Blumhouse’s Spawn reboot are tentatively celebrating at news the project will begin shooting this spring. The movie, based on the cult favorite comic book of the same name, follows Al Simmons, a former CIA Black Ops agent who is betrayed by his bosses when they hire his friend and partner, Bruce Stinson, to murder him. Simmons makes a deal with the devil to return to Earth to once again see his wife, but ends up coming back transformed into a demonic creature, a Hellspawn. He becomes a classic comic book anti-hero on the streets of New York.
This isn’t the first time that Spawn will be brought to the big screen. Back in 1997, Todd McFarlane’s comic was made in to a movie starring Michael Jai White as the title character, but thanks to a PG-13 rating and a lackluster script, the movie only saw minimal box office success. During New York Comic Con last October the McFarlane pledged that this new Spawn movie will be “dark and R-rated,” yet unlike the other comic book anti-hero movies we’ve seen. He elaborated by adding, “I will have a shark in black water and if you’re swimming he will come and you’ll be gone and he will f*ck you up.”
While we haven’t seen any concrete release dates, Omega Underground is reporting that Spawn could begin filming as early as May. They’ve also stated that while nothing has been confirmed, New York is looking like a possible location for the shoot. This will be McFarlane’s directorial debut on the low budget production. McFarlane completed the script for Spawn last year before joining up with Blumhouse to produce the flick. We haven’t seen any actors attached to the cast either, but McFarlane has thrown around big budget names like Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio for lead roles.
The comic book creator has stated he wants to create a low budget horror movie that will appeal to fans of the comic, and that the title role of Spawn will be a non-speaking role. McFarlane previously compared the Spawn reboot to Steven Spielberg’s classic, Jaws, stating the character of Twitch is like Chief Brody and does most of the talking. In this metaphor, Spawn would then be the shark, showing up at the right time throughout the movie to make it all worthwhile.
Blumhouse definitely seems like a good fit for McFarlane and his vision for the Spawn movie. It’s been behind some of the most successful, low budget movies horror movies we’ve seen including Get Out, Paranormal Activity and The Purge. McFarlane has stated the budget for this movie will be $10 million and there’s currently no release date or even production date.
Source: Omega Underground
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