Jamie Foxx has signed up to star in the 'Spawn' reboot

Back in 1997, a small superhero film came out called Spawn, and although it was based on a beloved comic, it was only a modest success at the box-office. The critics on the other hand, weren’t so kind (I bloody loved it, if you’re asking), and it’s generally considered as a failure. It was also, at the time, a major argument against special-effects-driven movies, thanks to a great number of fully CGI scenes that, well, haven’t exactly aged well:

But the thing is, it’s a great story - US Marine gets murdered, goes to hell, makes deal with devil to see his wife again, is transformed into demonic Venom-like creature, defies devil, becomes antihero. Oh yeah, and has the greatest superhero costume of all time.

Anyway, after the relative disaster of the first film (shut up, I still like it), creator Todd McFarlane has been trying to get another film adaptation off the ground for a while, and it seems now it’s finally a goer.

We know this because Todd (who will be directing) and Jason Blum (producing) have managed to get Jamie Foxx on board as Al Simmons (Spawn), a role that was originally played by the severely underrated, absolute legend, Michael Jai White. Blum said:

“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 whole thing is heading in a completely different direction to the previous outing, too, with McFarlane detailing what to expect to Deadline:

“The scariest movies, from Jaws to John Carpenter’s The Thing, or The Grudge and The Ring, the boogeyman doesn’t talk…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. 

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“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.”

So we’re going down the horror route with this one, which is both good and bad. Good because Spawn is a very dark character and he literally comes from Hell; bad because it probably means we won’t get loads of really cool fight scenes where he’s using his amazing suit and shooting chains out of his back whilst on a motorbike. I require scenes of this ilk in every film I watch, you see.

No idea yet on filming details or release dates, but don’t let that stop you from getting all excited. Go for it, burst a blood vessel, who are we to stop you?

(Images: New Line)