For more than half a decade, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane has been working to bring cinematic redemption to his Image Comics character, as Spawn’s 1997 film debut was not critically well received. It’s been a while since we got any significant updates on the Spawn reboot that’s in development over at Blumhouse Productions, but word’s come in that the project has picked up steam thanks to scoring a new writer.
Rather than use the Spawn script that Todd McFarlane wrote himself and completed in February 2016, Brian Tucker, who wrote the Russell Crowe and Mark Wahlberg-led movie Broken City, has been hired to pen a new draft of the reboot. The report didn’t clarify if Tucker’s version of the Spawn reboot will draw from anything McFarlane previously put on paper or if he’s starting from scratch, but this adds another notable property to Tucker’s resume, as he’s also writing The Fugitive remake.
Brian Tucker’s hiring also potentially affects the involvement of Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner, who were previously announced to be playing Spawn and Detective Twitch Williams, respectively. Because so many years have passed since they signed on to the Spawn reboot, it’s unclear if the actors are still attached, but insiders told THR that Foxx and Renner could be re-approached after Tucker’s script is finished. Todd McFarlane is still primed to direct the reboot and will produce alongside Blumhouse founder Jason Blum, while Carla Hacken will executive produce.
If Brian Tucker is indeed starting with a clean slate on the new Spawn movie, then folks who’ve been anticipating the project should prepare for the possibility that the final product will look quite different than what Todd McFarlane has been teasing for years. Among the details McFarlane has shared about his version of the Spawn reboot is that it wouldn’t depict the character’s origin, Spawn would communicate in an unusual way and this was intended to be an R-rated movie that would make children cry. But if McFarlane is collaborating with Tucker in any way on the script, then I suspect some elements from McFarlane’s Spawn story will be retained, but we’ll have to wait and see if that’s the case.
This update comes over a year after Jason Blum said there had been had been “an enormous amount of activity” on Spawn, but wasn’t willing to divulge any specifics. Next year marks Spawn’s 30th anniversary, with his ongoing series having been published continuously since that time alongside a number of spinoff series, including the soon-to-launch King Spawn. The character also led his own animated series on HBO in the late ‘90s and cameoed in 2018’s Ready Player One.
As soon as more concrete details about Spawn’s progress are revealed, we here at CinemaBlend will let you know. In the meantime, keep track of movies that are coming in the near future with our 2021 release schedule and 2022 release schedule.
