Dark Blumhouse To Spawn A Non-Origin Trilogy
Deadline reports Jamie Foxx will portray the titular human Al Simmons whom turns Hellspawn in what would be his second comic book movie. Foxx previously played the villainous Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Simmons, aka Spawn, the anti-hero who makes a bad deal with the devil in exchange for a chance at vengeance after being betrayed and murdered by his CIA colleagues on Earth.
The comic was huge in the 1990s and was previously turned into an animated film and a live-action pic with Michael Jai White playing the character. Todd McFarlane has long gotten overtures on a new live-action film that could launch a franchise, but he always had creative issues that led him to his own gritty low-budget version at Blumhouse.
McFarlane, who created Spawn for Image Comics, told Deadline the first film in the series won’t be an origin story and that he wants to bring a darker, R-rated take to the franchise he made popular in the 1990s.
McFarlane added:
“I’ve got a trilogy in mind here, and I’m not inclined in this first movie to do an origin story. I’m mentally exhausted from origin stories, I’m not going to explain how Spawn does what he does; he is just going to do it.”
There’s no early word on a development timeline for the first film, but McFarlane expects the budget to be between $10-$12 million for the dark R-rated realisation of his vision that will stack up favourably from both a creative and financial standpoint.
