'Spawn' Movie Update: Todd McFarlane Threatens To Walk Away If He Has To Change His Script Too Much

It's been several months since we've gotten a Spawn movie update, but now Spawn creator and would-be film director Todd McFarlane has indicated that the project has hit a snag. 

Despite McFarlane saying "We're going. Blumhouse, Spawn, badass, R [rating], it's coming, get ready for it! We're going into production," back in 2017, he's yet to actually begin production on his dark and gritty Spawn film. It's now two years later, and while the script appears to be ready to go, McFarlane is having trouble convincing everyone to sign off on it. As he tells ComicBook.com:

"The money's sitting on the sidelines ready to go. I just need to get everyone that wants to put in money to shake their heads to the same script. As you can imagine, everyone has a slightly different version of it in their head. You just go and trying to appease a handful of people while not giving in to what it is that I'm trying to do myself. Because if I have to change it too much, I'll just walk away from it all."

McFarlane is in the best position possible here, because he doesn't need this movie. He's not a hungry filmmaker who's looking to jumpstart his career – he's the creator of this piece of intellectual property who managed to somehow convince Blumhouse that he's the right guy to direct this movie. He has all of the power in this scenario. If he doesn't like a change that's being forced into his script from financiers, he can easily just walk away. He has a successful toy line to his name and is one of the most recognizable figures in comic book history – it's not like he's hurting for cash.

Still, it's not like this news is a death sentence for the Spawn movie. There's still a chance that everyone comes to an agreement and it all moves forward. After all, McFarlane (who's making his feature directorial debut) already has Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner signed on to star, and the legendary Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead) working on makeup. Plus, McFarlane has already promised this will be a "joyless" movie that truly earns a hard R rating and takes some inspiration from Steven Spielberg's Jaws...so what else could hardcore Spawn fans possibly want?