Todd McFarlane’s Spawn movie has just gained new writers with some major comic book movie pedigree. McFarlane revealed that Scott Silver (Joker) and Malcolm Spellman (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Captain America: New World Order) have signed on to pen a new screenplay for the long-awaited reboot.
This news comes a little more than a year after Broken City’s Brian Tucker came on board the film, which has been in the works since 2009. Silver and Spellman are penning a new script rather than rewriting Tucker’s draft. McFarlane himself is still attached to direct, as well as produce the film alongside Blumhouse Productions’ Jason Blum.
IGN recently had the chance to speak with McFarlane about this news and learn more about why Spawn has faced such a long, uphill battle back to the big screen. Read on to learn more about the status of the movie, and why Batman/Spawn #1 is already shaping up to be the best-selling comic of the year.
Note: due to technical difficulties with the recording process, this article will paraphrase McFarlane’s comments rather than include full quotes.
The Future of the Spawn Movie
The news that the Spawn movie is gaining new writers may be seen as a mixed blessing to fans, as it’s clear the project is still in its early stages five years after McFarlane formally reannounced it. McFarlane is well aware Spawn fans are growing impatient at the slow progress, and at this point he’s as frustrated as anyone at that lack of momentum.
However, McFarlane is also adamant that his ultimate goal is to get the story right, not meet a particular deadline. He revealed that Blum was responsible for helping him change his perspective on the development process, reminding McFarlane that the Spawn movie will happen when the time is right, not before. Whether that means Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner will still be attached to the film when production finally gets underway remains to be seen.
Silver and Spellman are clearly no strangers to comic book movies at this point. McFarlane noted that Silver’s work on Joker in particular made him a logical choice to pen a new screenplay. That film took a relatively low-budget approach to the Batman franchise, grossing over a billion dollars and becoming the most profitable comic book movie of all time despite its R-rating.
That gels with McFarlane’s desire to take a smaller, darker and more intimate approach to Spawn. Back when filming was expected to begin in 2018, McFarlane envisioned a lean $10 million budget and a story that would treat Spawn more as an imposing background figure than the main protagonist of the story. However, at that point the film was still relying on McFarlane’s own screenplay. Multiple new scripts later, McFarlane has made it clear he has no desire to dictate the story, but is instead deferring to Silver and Spellman as they work to breathe new life into the saga of this undead anti-hero.
The Success of Batman/Spawn
The Spawn movie is still several years away, but another new project is looming much closer on the horizon. In December DC and Image will team up for Batman/Spawn #1, the first crossover between the two franchises in nearly 30 years. McFarlane is writing that one-shot special, reuniting with former Spawn collaborator (and prolific Batman artist) Greg Capullo.
Spawn/Batman #1 is already a big hit even two months before its release. Image is projecting sales of at least 500,000 copies based on initial preorders, which would easily make it the best-selling comic of 2022. That would also make McFarlane the top-selling comic book creator two years in a row, as King Spawn #1 topped the charts in 2021. Clearly, the franchise is enjoying a major resurgence following the release of Spawn #300 and the launch of a shared Spawn universe.
Batman/Spawn #1 will pit the two characters against the Court of Owls, a shadowy organization created by Capullo and writer Scott Snyder in the pages of their New 52 Batman series. But while the Court of Owls is experiencing greater mainstream exposure due to their roles in animated movies like Batman vs. Robin and the upcoming Gotham Knights game, McFarlane revealed the choice of villain for this story was a simple one. He simply asked Capullo which characters he wanted to draw and let the story grow from there.
In fact, McFarlane and Capullo relied on the classic Marvel Method for this issue, drafting a story outline and allowing Capullo to draw the pages before finally adding dialogue. It’s an approach that has largely fallen out of favor in mainstream comics, but McFarlane noted he and Capullo have enjoyed their close collaboration and the process of fine-tuning their story by rearranging pages and rewriting dialogue.
McFarlane also confirmed that Batman/Spawn #1 isn’t being treated as a sequel to his and Frank Miller’s Spawn/Batman #1 or the limited series Batman/Spawn: War Devil. McFarlane felt it unwise to tie this new crossover to comics that have been out of print for decades (note – DC is reprinting both earlier crossovers in a new collected edition in November). Batman/Spawn #1 is instead meant to be a completely standalone story accessible to casual audiences.
For more on the current state of the Batman line, find out why there’s never been a better time to dive into DC’s Batman comics.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
