Comic book publisher Todd McFarlane recently spoke about his desire to see his creation, Spawn, return to the big screen in a stripped-down sequel to the 1997 Spawn movie adaptation. The original movie had a budget of $40 million and made a modest profit, but McFarlane said that he has been trying to convince studios that he can make the movie for a fraction of that budget.
McFarlane updated the status of his efforts to revive Spawn in an interview with MTV, saying that he did his "due diligence" in talking to the "big studios," but he doesn't think he "can get, and be satisfied with" what the studio system has to offer him.
I mean, they can offer a big budget, big stars, and probably make a lot more money. But, I just think that, story wise, I'm going to be a little bit dissatisfied. And, I just think that keeping it at that small budget — I keep telling them that I can make it for ten million bucks...
McFarlane said that he may decide to self-finance, in which case he is prepared to "take [his] lumps if it doesn't work."
Posted 03.12.10 by BrentJS Comic book creator Todd McFarlane helped start a revolution in the comics industry when he broke away from the "Big Two" publishers, Marvel and DC Comics, with several other creators to form Image Comics in the early '90s. The first issue of his creator-owned series, Spawn, broke all records for an independently published comic book, selling more than 1.7 million copies at a time when a "hot" comic would be lucky to sell 75,000 copies.
However, the 1997 Spawn movie adaptation that McFarlane co-produced was much less of a sensation than its source material, and its modest profit at the box office didn't justify a sequel. But, that doesn't mean that McFarlane has stopped thinking about bringing his demonic anti-hero back to the big screen. In fact, McFarlane recently told Newsarama that he's "had the idea" for a sequel "for over 10 years," and that he would like to "write, produce, and direct" the movie. McFarlane said that he wants to keep Spawn 2 small, with a budget under $20 million, so that he can convince studios to let him direct it.
I'm 80% through the script, I did my due diligence, went around Hollywood.... I listened to the pitch from all the big studios, but I just went, "Nah, I need to make this small and tight and contained."
And if we keep the budget small, they'll allow me to do all of that. [But] if you blow up the budget ... then I have to give it away.
McFarlane went on to say that simply making the movie is more important to him than worrying about the size of the audience.
At this point in my life, I'd rather keep it smaller and maybe get fewer people to come see it, but actually just sort of extract out of my brain what I've been living with for the past 10 years.
And, if McFarlane can't convince a studio to fund the movie with him at the helm, he might just go the route that Mark Millar and Matthew Vaughn took with Kick-Ass, another movie based on a comic book, and avoid studio entanglements altogether.
Another option is me just financing it myself. That way I can just ... I own all of it.
Posted 02.26.10 by BrentJS