Spawn Movie Will Be "Dark," Starts Shooting Soon

Comic book legend and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane has been trying get a new movie version of his demonic anti-hero into production for some time, and it looks like it's about to happen. Following the announcement earlier this year that Get Out-producers Blumhouse Films would be producing the film, McFarlane has now stated that it will start shooting in February.

As reported by Deadline, McFarlane confirmed the news at New York Comic-Con. McFarlane is writing and directing, and explained that it would be very different from the current wave of superhero movies. "It's going to be dark," he said, before adding cryptically, "I will have a shark in black water, and if you're swimming he will come and you'll be gone and he will f**k you up."

McFarlane went on to explain that the budget would be $10 million, and that although Universal has a deal with Blumhouse to distribute its movies, it wasn't guaranteed that the new Spawn film would end up there.

"The only things we need from them are distribution and marketing," he said. "We don't need their input, we don't need their cash, we don't need their creativity--and they don't like those deals. They always want the budget to go up because then they have to put money in it and then they own it."

McFarlane was asked how confident he was about his ability to direct the movie, which will be his debut. "I didn't use to draw comic books and I drew comic books and I won awards," he said. "I don't know how to read music and I have a Grammy Award. I'm spending my own money so who cares if it doesn't work out? It's a $10 million budget movie, and [a studio] would just get a 22-year-old punk director. I just want to be the old punk directing it."

The Spawn comic book was first published in 1992 and was massively popular, with the first issue selling 1.7 million copies. However, the 1997 film adaptation received a negative critical reception and underperformed commercially.

Numerous video games featuring the character have been released over the years, including Spawn: The Video Game, Spawn: Armageddon, and Spawn: The Eternal.