Todd McFarlane’s Spawn reboot hasn’t exactly hit the ground running, that much we know.
The R-rated retelling of Albert “Al” Simmons may have courted Jamie Foxx for the titular role, but so far, there’s been nary a mention of a production start date, as McFarlane and his team continue to crunch the numbers to present a feasible project with which Blumhouse can develop. At least, that’s the idea.
During San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, McFarlane sat down with ComicBook.com to provide a much-needed status report on Spawn, before identifying the precise reason for the hold-up: the movie’s script, which has seemingly resulted in things grinding to a halt.
The money’s sitting on the sidelines ready to go. I just need to get everyone that wants to put in money to shake their heads to the same script. As you can imagine, everyone has a slightly different version of it in their head. You just go and trying to appease a handful of people while not giving in to what it is that I’m trying to do myself. Because if I have to change it too much, I’ll just walk away from it all.
To his credit, McFarlane already has a figure in mind when it comes to Spawn‘s budget (spoilers: it’s $20 million), and went on to say that he’d be willing to go down the route of Kickstarter if he isn’t able to secure the right amount of money before Spawn is due to commence filming.
Via ComicBook.com:
Look I am relentless, I’m like a dog with a bone. I will get there, I promise you. I will get there. Because I will beat the system. Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll do it as a Kickstarter… and here’s the Kickstarter: I need 20 million people to give me a dollar. And I will make this movie, and when I get the money back I’ll return the dollar back to you. And you will be my producers… and all I’ll need is the distribution. That’s doable today. I don’t get why Ryan Gosling doesn’t do that for every one of his movies, ‘I need 20 million of you to give me a dollar,’ are you kidding, he’d have it in an hour and could go do his thing! But people in the system are beholden to it and they have obligations, and the guy on the outside, me, goes ‘I’m only going to give them so much time, and then I’m just going to come up with some crazy idea.
You can’t fault McFarlane’s commitment. After all, this is a project that he’s been trying to get off the ground for quite some time, so we imagine there’s no one more frustrated by Spawn‘s distinct lack of progress than McFarlane himself. Still, based on this candid interview with CB, there’s still an inkling of hope that fans will get to see Jamie Foxx light up the screen as Albert “Al” Simmons when all is said and done. Fingers crossed!