Jamie Foxx Confirmed to Star in Spawn Reboot
Jamie Foxx is officially set to star as the title character in the Spawn reboot film from Blumhouse and Todd McFarlane.
According to Deadline, Foxx finally took on the role after rumors that he was being being courted to play the popular comic book character. McFarlane, who created Spawn and started Image Comics, will be writing and directing the film.
This newest adaptation—a gritty, R-rated reimagining—marks Image President, co-founder and Spawn creator, Todd McFarlane’s film directorial debut. McFarlane, an Emmy/Grammy-winning producer/director is also on board as screenwriter and co-producer with Blumhouse.
While the movie will be titled after Spawn, he won’t always be the character featured on the screen. In this take on the character, Spawn will be the kind of character that lurks in the shadows, only appearing from time to time in order to capitalize on his terror.
“The scariest movies, from Jaws to John Carpenter’s The Thing, or The Grudge and The Ring, the boogeyman doesn’t talk,” McFarlane told Deadline, acknowledging that he’s gotten odd stares from studio suits in the past on this approach. “It confuses people because of the comic book industry, and because they all default into their Captain America mindset and I keep saying, no, get into John Carpenter’s mindset or Hitchcock. This is not a man in a rubber suit, it’s not a hero that’s going to come and save the damsel. It’s none of that. At the end of the movie, I’m hoping that the audience will say either, is this a ghost that turns into a man, or is it a man that turns into a ghost? I’ve got a trilogy in mind here, and I’m not inclined in this first movie to do an origin story. I’m mentally exhausted from origin stories. Luckily, there’s a movie that just came out that helps my cause. In A Quiet Place, the first thing on screen is a card in black and white letters that says Day 89. It doesn’t care about what happened in those first 88 days. There are a couple headlines, but then we are on day 450. That movie doesn’t worry about explaining and giving all the answers. What it said in that case was, if you can hang on for a story of survival of this family, this movie will make complete sense for you.”
McFarlane continued to explain that he chose Foxx to play the character because he’s seen the actor perform well when there haven’t been a ton of lines to read.
“There are five or six moments where I’m going to need things from my actors, and a couple of them have to come from Jamie, and I’ve seen him deliver them onscreen,” McFarlane said. “He gets into a zone, with body language and a look that basically will say way more than anything I could type on a piece of paper, and this movie is going to need those moments. And in the odd moment where he has to deliver a line that’s short, curt and has impact, he can do it in a way that makes you go, ‘whoa, I don’t want to mess with that guy. What a badass.’”
What do you think of this casting news? Is Jamie Foxx the right actor to bring Spawn to life once again? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Spawn’s Comic History
SPAWN sold an unprecedented 1.7 million copies at the time it was released. It is one of the world’s best-selling and longest-running monthly comic books, with hundreds of millions sold worldwide in more than 120 countries. It has been translated into 15 different languages.
The comic became an Emmy Award-winning animated series on HBO and a New Line Cinema feature film that grossed more than $100 million. McFarlane went on to direct and produce award-winning and critically acclaimed projects for top movie studios and record labels.
