A movie reboot is being planned for Todd McFarlane’s “Spawn,” 23 years after the first movie premiered in cinemas. Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner have been approached to play significant roles in the film, with Foxx set to take on the role of ex-Army man Al Simmons, who died, went to hell, and became the demonic anti-hero, Spawn.
News initially came out of Jamie Foxx’ departure from the project due to undisclosed reasons. CBR, through Shoryuken, said that McFarlane had commented on the matter indirectly. He said that an “academy award-winning guy” was supposed to be the movie but had changed his mind and declined. Most people took this to be the award-winning actor, Foxx.
It has since been confirmed that the person McFarlane referred to was a writer and not Foxx. Foxx, reportedly, was still confirmed to push through with the project since he signed in May 2018. The actor had also allegedly been “pursuing the project” for years.
The comic book was a huge hit in the 90s. It was so popular at the time, people voraciously bought various merchandise of the comic book character and watched the animated series that soon followed. It was enough to merit a film, with actor Michael Jai White giving life to the character of Spawn, the wronged soldier who ended up in hell.
Since then, McFarlane had produced his own “gritty, low-budget” version of the film, since he had not found a team that understood his vision. He wanted a dark R-rated movie for this character, and he wanted his dark hero to be a “silent” version — one that’s a man of few words and one that doesn’t tell Spawn’s origin story all over again.
As for Foxx, the “Spawn” creator said that the actor came up to him five years ago with an idea about Spawn. He said that Foxx had become his “visual guy” for the remake, and when the time came, McFarlane came knocking and Foxx was still interested to be the main character.
The movie will be written and directed by Todd McFarlane, with Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner being confirmed for important roles. No release date has yet been announced.
