McFarlane to Spawn a sequel
Posted on Tue, 22-Mar-2005
"Spawn" creator Todd McFarlane tells UGO that plans for another film version are still bubbling away.
McFarlane says the new movie will be about as close to the first one - which starred Michael Jai White and Martin Sheen - as Melbourne is to Mumbai.
"That one is sort of devoid of all comic book stuff. It's a true spook movie in the vein of The Exorcist, or more recently with a movie like The Grudge or something like that. It's not like anyone is running around in costumes, there are no superpowers or villains but more of a scarefest. There is only one scary thing in those movies and this case it would just be Spawn. There is no Clown and there is no Violator. None that stuff. There is a boogeyman in the midst of a movie like LA Confidential. How would LA Confidential be different if shadows are moving", he says.
Will he look the same though? "Not really. Ultimately, you never get a big giant look at him because he's a ghost. All of sudden you turn and there is nothing there. I use Jaws as inspiration in a weird way. You don't really see him in the first attack or the next couple of attacks. It wasn't until a little later you see his mouth and some of the other stuff. The more I show him the less scary he will be so he will be more like a force of nature. There was this movie a few years ago called Jacob's Ladder, so it will have creepy elements like that. We'll see if anyone wants any of that. Part of it is that no one wants to give us $70 million for the second movie. I can't think big extravaganza so I have to go down low and keep the budget under $20 million. Which means no special effects, which is ok, because then it becomes a scary suspense movie that hopefully I can get you to jump out of your seat a few times".
Steve Niles and Hans Rodionoff had each written a draft for a "Spawn 2", but at the moment, they're not involved - just McFarlane.
"Hans did a couple of drafts did a couple of drafts of the movie Tortured Souls that was based on some toys that Clive Barker and I came up with. When we moved Spawn from New Line to Sony, Steve Niles and I did a script there. But as it stands right now Sony doesn't want to let it up because they want some stupid number to buy it because they say they spent all this money. Like whatever. So I have to take a step away from that and do what I need to do. The stuff that Steve and I were doing was closer to some of these same elements where again there were no supervillains or any of that stuff. It was taking a very serious look at voodoo and witchcraft", he says. "The deal that we were trying to make with one of the studios last week was that I would be writing, directing and producing it. We got the creative part set but we couldn't get the co-financing aspect nailed down. Right now my intent is to just finance it myself and find a distributor later".
Guess Michael Jai White needn't wait for your call then, Todd?
