He expects the budget to be between $10 million-$12 million for a dark R-rated realization of his vision that will stack up favorably from both a creative and financial standpoint.
He doesnt intend to tell Spawns origin story and he expects his anti-hero to be a man of few words.
The scariest movies, from Jaws to John Carpenters The Thing, or The Grudge and The Ring, the boogeyman doesnt talk, McFarlane told Deadline, acknowledging that hes gotten odd stares from studio suits in the past on this approach. 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 Carpenters mindset or Hitchcock. This is not a man in a rubber suit, its not a hero thats going to come and save the damsel. Its none of that. At the end of the movie, Im 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? Ive got a trilogy in mind here, and Im not inclined in this first movie to do an origin story. Im mentally exhausted from origin stories. Luckily, theres 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 doesnt care about what happened in those first 88 days. There are a couple headlines, but then we are on day 450. That movie doesnt 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 wants to challenge Spawn aficionados and newcomers in the same fashion. If you want to see something creepy and powerful where you go, just what the hell was that? Im not going to explain how Spawn does what he does; he is just going to do it. Well eventually do some of the background if we make a trilogy, but thats not this first movie. The first movie is just saying, do you believe? And if you believe than thats good because Im hoping to take you for a long ride with this franchise.
McFarlane expects the envelope-pushing take might turn his biggest fans into his most ferocious critics. If theres a touchstone film to his approach, its Jacobs Ladder, a film that left audiences questioning whether or not the action on the screen was real or a nightmare.
If Spawn doesnt have much to say, then why Foxx, the Oscar-winner who delivered so many memorable lines in everything from Django Unchained to Collateral and Ray?
There are five or six moments where Im going to need things from my actors, and a couple of them have to come from Jamie, and Ive seen him deliver them onscreen, McFarlane said. He gets into a zone, with body language and a look that basically will say way more than anything i could type on a piece of paper, and this movie is going to need those moments. And in the odd moment where he has to deliver a line thats short, curt and has impact, he can do it in a way that makes you go, Whoa, I dont want to mess with that guy. What a badass.'
McFarlane adds that Foxx was the actor in his mind when he wrote the script.
Jamie came to my office five years ago, and he had an idea about Spawn and we talked about it, McFarlane said. 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, Im going to Jamie first and until he says no I dont want to think about anyone else because Ive never had anyone else in my head. Luckily, he hadnt forgotten either. I said, Hey, Im back to talk about Spawn again, and he was like, lets do it.'
