Back in 1997 Todd McFarlane's Spawn was released into theaters. The movie starred Michael Jai White as Al Simmons/Spawn, John Leguizamo as Al's demonic guide and antagonist Clown/The Violator, Melinda Clarke as the assassin Jessica Priest, Nicol Williamson as Al's mentor Cogliostro, Theresa Randle as Al's widow Wanda Blake, D. B. Sweeney as Wanda's husband Terry Fitzgerald, Martin Sheen as Al's former government employer Jason Wynn, and voice actor Frank Welker as the voice of Malebolgia.
We heard there might be another Spawn film in the works. The comic book series you launched in 1992 is still popular today. (Spawn #200 debuted in January.) But the 1997 movie was modestly received. Its star, Michael Jai White, thought the film wasn’t dark enough. Do you agree?
“That’d be correct. The first Spawn was an action PG-13 movie. You can also argue that it was ahead of its time. Look at all the comic book movies out now. That wasn’t the fad back then. We probably should’ve held off a little bit longer. But New Line still did okay. I think it was their No. 1 movie that year.
Read more after the Jump...
“I remember the head of New Line sitting me down on Monday or Tuesday after the movie opened and saying, “the data showed that 85% of the audience was 14 or older.” I never forgot the stat because I kept thinking, next time we can go to an R-rating. By then that 14-year-old will be able to get into an R-rated movie without adult supervision. Now since it’s obviously been a lot longer than a couple of years and that 14-year-old is now 27 or 28. I think they’re looking for some cool, serious, dark, creepy version of this thing.
“There are a lot of people who think what we did on HBO [with the animated series Spawn] was way cooler because it was intentionally R-rated.
Is there a finished script?
“I’m three quarters through it. I’ll finish it and put it on a shelf for about a week. What usually happens is, I come back to it so I can see all the flaws. I do a rewrite and there’s a first draft at that point. Then I’ll start soliciting comments from people I trust to see if I can get the script into working shape. If I can’t, I’m open to someone coming in and helping me with it.
“[A few studios have phoned me to talk about the project] and when I walk into these pitch meetings, I go here’s the story. I give them the broad strokes. Then I go, here’s the non-negotiable part: I write, produce, direct. That’s it.
There’s only one way a studio is going to say yes, that’s if it’s a low-budget movie. To be honest, as a producer, even I wouldn’t hire myself to direct a big-budget film. There are smarter people out there. But if you’re making it for $10 million to $12 million, you’re just going to go get some schmuck director so let me be the schmuck.”
“In this new version, there are no supervillains, archenemies or any of that. It’s just a spook movie, something scary going bump in the night. I think I can shoot that for almost next to nothing.”
Please Leave A Comment-
Comments