Mon Dec 15, 2008 — by Robert Greenberger

Todd McFarlane Wants to Direct 'Spawn' Sequel

Holding out on Awarding Rights Until he Gets Deal

Todd McFarlane told Game Pro that he is eager to begin work on a new Spawn feature film.

“Yeah, you know...ever since Iron Man came out, the phone's been ringing,” McFarlane admitted. “A movie studio CEO called me today, actually: ‘I just wanna say we're interested. But I think he was the last of the big studios to call me! But I'm still of the mind that [a Spawn movie sequel] is a lower budget, cooler, creepier movie. When we get there, it'll get made. [This goes back to something I said a few years ago], which is that the movie studios will start burning through the A and A- characters. They did a fantastic job with Iron Man, who I don't think many fans would describe as an ‘A+’ character, by getting him up to that level with the movie.”

However, to control the look of the film, the artist turned mogul says he wants to direct the film. ”I tell everybody that in advance,” he said. “The answer is, the only way anyone will say 'yes' to that is if I keep the budget low. If I make it an $80 million budget, they won't let me direct it...nor would I want to direct it. There are too many guys who are smarter that can do it. But a $10 million dollar creepy movie? I can do that one....In the movie idea I have for Spawn, there is no super villain. It's a completely real drama that happens to have a spook in it. And it doesn't mean that the spook has an arch-enemy or a nemesis, or any of that. It just means that there's a sentinel stuck in the middle of The Godfather.

“I've been living with this movie in my head for a long time. I don't feel like trying to convey what's in my brain to somebody else...it would take too long. I can just do it myself. And people aren't adverse to it. You know, Frank Miller is directing his stuff now.”

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