Jamie Foxx Confirmed to Star in Spawn Movie Reboot
Jamie Foxx is now officially set to star in the Spawn movie reboot that Todd McFarlane is writing and directing for Blumhouse. McFarlane created the Spawn comic book character in 1992 and has continuously expressed a desire to relaunch the brand on the big screen for the past 5-10 years now. The project finally began to take some real steps forward last year, when Blumhouse Productions - the studio behind such low-budget smash hit horror films as Split and Get Out, as well as long running horror franchises like Insidious and The Purge - formally joined the venture. It was previously reported that McFarlane had offered the titular role in the Spawn rebootto Foxx, but it wasn't clear how interested (or not interested) the Oscar-winner actually was in the dark superhero role anymore, having already circled a different iteration of the reboot years earlier. Well, now it's a done deal: Foxx is returning to the comic book movie genre - where he previously played the supervillain Electro in 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - and is joining forces with McFarlane and Blumhouse in reviving the Spawn movie franchise. Deadline has the exclusive on Foxx signing up for Spawn, along with confirmation from both the actor and McFarlane. Blumhouse chief Jason Blum issued a statement to the outlet, further confirming Foxx's involvement with the reboot: “We are thrilled Jamie Foxx will be playing the title role in our movie adaptation of Spawn. He is an incredible actor and a huge fan of the Spawn Universe that Todd McFarlane created. With the depth of talent Jamie can commit to the role and Todd at the helm bringing the world of Spawn to life, we could not be more excited for this film.” The critically derided 1997 Spawn movie recounts its namesake's origin story, showing how he went from being elite CIA black ops agent Al Simmons - murdered after being set up by his peers - to becoming a demonic warrior, after making a literal deal with the devil that would allow him to reunite with his wife and take revenge on those responsible for his death (in short: there were complications). McFarlane, as part of his own statement to Deadline, said that the Spawn movie reboot won't explore the dark superhero's backstory, though it's possible that future sequels - should they happen - will dive into that:
“If you want to see something creepy and powerful where you go, just what the hell was that? I’m not going to explain how Spawn does what he does; he is just going to do it. We’ll eventually do some of the background if we make a trilogy, but that’s not this first movie. The first movie is just saying, do you believe? And if you believe than that’s good because I’m hoping to take you for a long ride with this franchise.” Among other things, the Spawn reboot will be an rated R supernatural horror/thrillerwhere, as McFarlane reiterated during his interview with Deadline, Spawn himself basically won't speak for the entire film. It will also be a low-budget affair in the vein of Blumhouse's previous films, making it all the more different (and, hopefully, better) than the special effects heavy and often unintentionally campy 1997 big screen take on the property. In theory, that approach will allow Spawn to keep up with the modern trend of superhero movies embracing different styles and tones to (mostly) positive effect; so the question now is, can McFarlane walk the walk as well as he talks the talk?
|
Comments
|