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Jamie Foxx’s Spawn Reboot Movie Gets Uncertain Update From Todd McFarlane Amid Actors & Writers Strikes-TGN

Summary

  • The Spawn reboot is facing uncertainty due to ongoing actors and writers strikes, and Todd McFarlane and Jason Blum still need to sell the project to a studio.

  • Despite setbacks caused by the pandemic and strikes, McFarlane remains hopeful that they will be able to move forward with the project within 60 days after the resolution of the strikes.

  • High-profile talent such as Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner attached to the project could generate studio interest and expand the potential audience beyond the niche fanbase of the comics.

Having already spent the better part of 15 years in development hell, Todd McFarlane is now sharing an uncertain update on Jamie Foxx’s Spawn reboot. McFarlane’s comics centered on a murdered CIA assassin resurrected by the demon Malebolgia to lead his demon army’s attack on Earth, only to turn against it and become an antihero. Spawn has scored two screen adaptations since its 1992 launch, including the infamously panned 1997 live-action movie and critically acclaimed HBO animated show, in which he was voiced by Keith David. A Spawn reboot has been in the works for years with Jamie Foxx set to lead the cast.

While speaking exclusively with Screen Rant at 2023’s San Diego Comic-Con, Todd McFarlane was asked for an update on Jamie Foxx’s Spawn reboot movie. The character’s creator sounded more uncertain in the project’s future amid the ongoing actors and writers strikes, indicating he and Jason Blum still “have to sell” the reboot to a studio, though did also state the duo could get to shopping the project around “within 60 days after the resolution.” See what McFarlane shared below:

We’re right in the middle of a strike. Everybody’s saying, “Don’t go out and promote,” and whatever else. Jason Blum gave an interview before the SAG strike. People can go out there and read that, which essentially just says, like any other project, Spawn’s no different than a million other projects. You’re constantly working on stuff, but again, things that are out of everybody’s control come along. Things like the pandemic and people get caught in that. And then, up until recently, a writer strike comes, boom. That goes down, the actor strike, whatever.

But when those inadvertent things aren’t happening, then you’re pushing the boulder a little bit forward so that we can, at some point, go into Hollywood and actually sell it. I’m hearing about stuff that (is) 90 percent completed, and then they’re having to shut it down. We’re so far away from that. We have to sell it at some point. For right now, it’s pens down on the writing, and nothing’s happening on the actor.

I’m just as curious to see how long this all takes to get resolved. But my guess is that once it does get resolved — and fingers crossed should be hopefully sooner than later, but I don’t know if that’s even true — that within 60 days after the resolution, we should then be able to actually go into the city. And actually say, “Hey, we’re ready.” I don’t know. We’ll see. I don’t control any of this. I’m just going along for the ride.

Editor’s Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and the movie covered here cannot not exist without the labor of the writers and actors in both unions.

Can The Spawn Reboot Survive Its Long Journey To Get Made?

In the years since it was announced, the Spawn reboot has seen a variety of updates from Foxx and McFarlane, the latter of whom continues to reiterate the Oscar winner’s devotion to playing the character and a variety of writers joining the project. More recently, Jason Blum promised the movie is still in “very, very active development” and even predicted the reboot could hit the big screen in 2025, though only on the condition that studios offer a better deal for those on strike.

Though the two have seemed confident about the movie’s chances over the years, the question now becomes whether the Spawn reboot can survive its long journey to get made. Having such high-profile talent as Blumhouse, Foxx, and Jeremy Renner all attached could help spark studio interest in acquiring the project and be able to market it to more than the more niche fanbase the comics have amassed throughout the years.

McFarlane also previously indicated the success of the Joaquin Phoenix-led Joker, whose co-writer Scott Silver is onboard for the project, has opened the door for more modestly budgeted R-rated comic book adaptations akin to the Spawn reboot being greenlit at major studios. With Blumhouse gearing up for the release of their long-gestating Five Nights at Freddy’s movie, the indie studio’s passionate devotion to sticking with a project even in the face of industry skepticism could lead to Blum and McFarlane finding a good home for the reboot when the strikes are resolved.