Todd McFarlane anticipates that he'll begin formal production on his long-gestating Spawn reboot film in February. McFarlane, who is directing the live-action film based on his own script, revealed this and other details in a New York Comic Con panel covered by Deadline.
McFarlane said the film will be "Dark and R-rated" - even more R-rated than the hit film Deadpool which he said had "a couple F-bombs and a couple bare asses."
Using the anology of being "a shark in black water," Spawn is described as a dark suspenseful drama a la Jaws.
"And if you're swimming he will come and you'll be gone and he will f*** you up."
McFarlane is working with the horror studio Blum on this, and said that due to their first-look deal with Universal Spawn could end up there - but they would only need them for "distribution and marketing."
"We dont need your input, we dont need your cash, we dont need your creativity and they dont like those deals," McFarlane said, who worked with Warner Bros.'s New Line on the original Spawn film. "They always want the budget to go up because then they have to put money in it and then they own it.
That budget, McFarlane says, is $10 million. The 1997 Spawn film had a $40m budget - which, adjusted for inflation would be $61.73m in 2017 money.
Im spending my own money so who cares if it doesnt work out," said McFarlane. "Its a $10 million budget movie, and (a studio) would just get a 22-year-old punk director. I just want to be the old punk directing it.
No release date for Spawn has been announced.
