Thanks to Deadpool and Logan, R-rated superhero movies are on the rise, but the new Spawn movie is hoping to leave everyone else in the dust. Todd MacFarlane, the creator of Spawn, has been hard at work getting a new Spawn movie off the ground, and he finally found a partner in Blumhouse Productions. Now MacFarlane is making the Spawn movie he wanted: an R-rated horror film that will really earn that R-rating. While movies like Deadpool may have set the bar in the superhero movie genre, MacFarlane considers Deadpool more PG-13 than R. His new Spawn is going hardcore R in a way he feels Deadpool didn't. As McFarlane noted:
It's funny in Hollywood, if you say you want to do an R-rated movie, they go like 'Oh like Deadpool and like Logan?' For me, no. Deadpool, to me, was a PG-13 action movie. It just had some naked butts and a couple f-bombs. Other than that, I thought it was the same PG-13 formula.
Todd MacFarlane was the subject of his own panel at ACE Comic-Con, and, of course, he got to talking about the Spawn movie that he's been developing. The movie sounds like it's going a different route than other superhero films. For example, the title character isn't the main character of the movie. And while there have been other R-rated superhero movies, MacFarlane says that Spawn is going to be incredibly R-rated. Citing Deadpool as an example, MacFarlane feels that that movie is R-rated mostly for nudity and language, but could otherwise be considered PG-13. He says that the new Spawn will be more extreme than that.
While Deadpool does have some gruesome violence, Todd MacFarlane isn't wrong when he says that most of Deadpool's R-rating is meant to cover nudity and curse words. He believes Logan was more R-rated in that regard, but it still won't compare to what he has in mind for Spawn. What does he have in mind for Spawn, you may be asking? Here's what MacFarlane has to say about how he hopes Spawn will earn its R-rating:
I'm talking R, I'm talking that there will not be a lot of fun, there will not be be any stupid lines in it... I never like my hero to make a joke right when the jeopardy was at its highest. So if I felt that my hero wasn't afraid right now, why should I be?... I want my heroes to go 'Shit, what do I do now?'
When elaborating on his vision, MacFarlane said that he is Spawn movie won't be very fun or humorous, but its characters will be afraid. This somewhat gives the impression that MacFarlane thinks R-rated movies can't also be funny, but I think the point he's making is that he won't sacrifice the seriousness of the situation with a lazy joke -- something that plenty of movies do. In that way, Spawn will be a hard R, with plenty of scares and blood, I imagine. Plus, he doesn't have to worry so much about "stupid lines." According to MacFarlane, Spawn doesn't have any lines in the movie.
Spawn is becoming an increasingly interesting project, so keep checking in with CinemaBlend, and we'll be sure to keep you updated with new information as soon as it is available. Keep up to date with all the movies heading to theaters soon with our 2018 movie release guide.
