Spawn creator Todd McFarlane has been talking about the next Spawn movie ever since the 1997 film adaptation of the popular comic book hit theaters. In recent months McFarlane has said that he currently has offers on the table for another Spawn film and even that he wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to star in a dark, adult-themed version of Spawn, which McFarlane has been pitching at every opportunity.

Well, now comes word that this "dark, adult-themed" Spawn is the version McFarlane has in fact settled on and that he is currently at work on the screenplay for the film, which will be neither be a reboot or a sequel, but rather a standalone film that McFarlane has been dreaming up for nearly a decade now.

If you missed our previous updates on this forthcoming Spawn movie, here's what McFarlane has in mind: (paraphrasing) "It's not a ‘comic book movie,’ it’s just a scary movie, a creepy movie, where everything is real except for one element, which is the character we know as Spawn.” The film would of course be Rated-R.

The actual plot of this new film would slightly alter the classic Spawn mythos of two police detectives (Sam and Twitch) on the trail of a supernatural killer who is dispatching crooks and mobsters around the city. In the new script, Sam and Twitch will reportedly be condensed into one cop character (the role McFarlane wants DiCaprio to play) who is caught up in a The Departed-meets-The Godfather mob investigation, until a mysterious and unseen entity shows up and starts slaughtering crooks. Unlike the 1997 film, which was more of a big-budget super hero flick, McFarlane's new script will likely treat Spawn as more of a peripheral character - a supernatural catalyst for the crime drama.

I like the idea for this new Spawn movie, but there is one problem I foresee: Spawn the comic book has so much mythology surrounding it at this point, with pretty much only a dedicated league of fanboys having followed the series in its later years. The concept McFarlane is going with for this new film would presumably ignore much of that mythology, leading to the inevitable fanboy outcry of whether it is "truly" Spawn at all.

However, ignoring fanboy mania for a moment: Some of my favorite issues of the Spawn comic were standalone issues dealing with normal people's encounters with the demon hero, so this film does hold a certain amount of appeal for me. And, if a big enough star plays the role of the cop main character, I could see the film holding appeal for a fairly wide audience, if the reaction to the recent trailer for Legion has been any indication.

What do you think: does this new Spawn movie sound good to you?

Spawn is still being scripted and no word yet on a release date.

Source: Coming Soon

Header Image : Greg Capullo