Big dissapoiting news reported yesterday, about the Spawn movie that came out of Comic-Con over the weekend from Spawn creator and one of Image co founder Todd McFarlane.
According to Heroic Hollwood by Trey Griffith. Todd spoke to a group of fans at his interview panel over the weekend an gave a sad update on the upcoming Spawn movie that is co staring Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner. Todd said the movie is pushed back, because of creative differences with the producers, who are putting up the money to make the movie.
Last week Todd spoke to Canada ET about the Spawn movie and gives an update on the movie and again mentions the budget as the reason why it’s on hold until with rewrites and financial producers to help budget the movie.
Here is a recent quote from Todd McFarlane talking about thr finacial resason, creative control on why Spwan has not gone into production, from Heroic Hollywood’s article.
Todd McFarlane: “Lemme see if I can just go real quick: Spawn movie, right? When are you going to make a Spawn movie, when are you going into production? My answer is ‘Yesterday, yesterday, yesterday.’ …. I need $20 million to make this movie, I don’t have all of it. I have to ask people for money, and once you ask people for money, they get to have a say in it. Like I said, it’s a little bit of an uphill battle, because again, I just want to do this little dark ‘R’ movie, and they like those PG-13 success movies.”
Check out the link below to Heroic Hollywood’s article
Todd McFarlane Blames ‘Spawn’ Movie Delays On Creative Differences
Todd also mention putting the movie on kickstarter to get the rest of the funds for the movie. Which is another bad look at the Spawn movie. Here’s another quote from Comic-Con.
Todd McFarlane: “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.”
Here’s a link below to movieweb.com
MY OPINION
I believe there’s more friction than about money between Todd McFarlane and thr producers. I remember hearing many of Todd’s past interviews when talking about a Spawn movie to his fans. He would always say that money is not an issue, and that he could put up his own money for the production cost, and that he needed a studio to be ok with him having full creative control as writer, and director for the Spawn movie. He got the support from Blumhouse to direct, and write the movie. Last year he hired Greg Nicotero from the Walking Dead series for special effects. He announced the casting of Spawn as Jamie Foxx, and Jeremy Renber as Detective Twitch as well. With how rhings looked last year many people including myself thought they would be in production this year, with a fall 2020 release date. I think the Kickstarter idea sounds like he was kidding about it.
Here is what Todd said to Comicbook.com in May of 2019 about the Spawn movie.
Todd McFarlane: “About the same spot,” McFarlane said when asked about the film’s status. “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.” Here’s the full article from Comicbook.com below.
https://comicbook.com/movies/2019/05/24/todd-mcfarlane-what-needs-happen-spawn-movie-made/
Now Todd McFarlane is contradicting himself because of money reason instead of confliction with financial producers who want a creative input on the movie if they have to put their own money into it. Todd has said money for the movie was never an issue. This is not a good look in the public eye for Todd McFarlane. For over 14 years now we’ve seen a trillion excuses as to why we haven’t seen Spawn on the big screen since the late 90s. I believe one of the financial producers who put the rest of the money walked away from the project and they are back in square one. Todd should financially put the rest of the 20 million up for his movie. He owns Spawn and has made a fortune from the character since it debut in the 90s. I don’t know why he cant do that, because he would not have to deal with the headache of other people an make his vision come to life.
Hopefully some resolutions will be made an we can see a Spawn movie in the next 2 years. Todd is expected to make a rare appearance at Boston Fan Expo in August 17th and August 18th. I’m hoping to get a chance to meet him. Hopefully there’s good news for the Spawn movie by then.
My Comic Book Opinion 