Todd McFarlane revealed his cards at New York Comic Con in regards to a potential release date for the reboot of the Spawn franchise.
The creator of Spawn and Jason Blum the guru of horror look to be eyeing a 2018 Halloween release. When talking about Sony’s Tom Hardy ‘Venom’ film, McFarlane explains why he wants the film to be successful.
“I hope it does well on a couple of different reasons. One is my name will be somewhat attached to it. But number two, the Spawn movie should be coming out fairly soon afterward, and I’ll be able to put on the trailer, “from co-creator of Venom comes!” I’ll be able to ride on the coattails, so I’m hoping it does good,” said McFarlane to Monkeys Fighting Robots.
‘Venom’ is scheduled to hit theaters on October 5, 2018. You would think Blum and McFarlane will give ‘Venom’ some box office room to breathe. Two weeks later Blumhouse has ‘Halloween’ on October 19, 2018; they won’t compete against themselves. If you wait much later to release the film, they will run into the holiday blockbusters, and they won’t wait till January as ‘Glass’ hits on January 18, 2019.
With a $10 million budget, a release date of October 31, 2018; makes the most sense as the film becomes very easy to market, and going to see the movie becomes an event.
Previous #1 films at the box office on Halloween:
BOO! A MADEA HALLOWEEN – $1.9 million (Monday 2016)
THE MARTIAN – $4.5 million (Saturday 2015)
OUIJA – $3.4 million (Friday 2014)
JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA – $1.4 million (Thursday 2013)
ARGO – $1.4 million (Wednesday 2012)
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 – $2.5 million (Monday 2011)
SAW 3D – $5.6 (Sunday 2010)
If Blumhouse markets ‘Spawn’ correctly with a Halloween event release, the film could earn 40 to 60 percent of its budget back in one night, according to previous box office records.
Would you see ‘Spawn’ on Halloween night? Comment below.
McFarlane is the writer, director, and producer on the project. No casting news or official release date has been announced.
The Spawn creator went into great detail about the tone of the new film.
“In the story, I’ve written, I’m not overly concerned about the heaven and hell elements of it. I always tell my writers I think it’s a crutch. “I get it, he comes from hell!” It doesn’t mean any more than if you come from North Dakota that every story has to involve somebody from North Dakota. It just means that’s where you are born. Now start telling me about the adventures of the guy globally, given that he’s not in North Dakota anymore.
I’m way more interested and concerned about sort of the evil and the darkness that are in men’s hearts, not demons or angels. The headlines that I read every day, those are the actions of men and not the actions of anything sort of out-of-worldly. I was a big fan growing up of drama, R-rated drama. Even the creepy movies I watched, I’m sure you can put yours in the same bucket. Whatever your three, four, or 500 top creepy movies are, there is one thing in common with all of them: You take the creepy thing out and the rest of the movie is normal. Superhero movies don’t work that way. You take Batman out, you still have the Batmobile and the headquarters and the Joker and Robin, and I mean there’s a dozen things that are still fantastic in it.
And creepy movies work because I think, and they’re accessible because you only have to disband your belief on one idea. Everything else leading up to the boogeyman is always real. You go out on a date with your girlfriend, you have a nice evening. You’re going down a dirt road, you run out of gas. We’ve all probably been there once. There is a house on the top of the hill, you’ve got to go knock on the door, and, “Oh, is there a psycho killer inside?” That allows you to have a creepy movie. You only have to go, “Is it possible to have a creepy guy inside a house in the middle of the farmlands?” I think most of us will go, “I think so.”
Can creepy people and insane people exist? Yes, sure. What are we talking about? We just saw it in Vegas a few days ago. You only have to give up one thing. Where, for me, in action movies — not just superhero movies, but action movies in general — you have to disband your belief and at times dozens of practical things, right? People straddling two cars at 90 miles an hour going down the freeway dodging bullets. I go, “I don’t know if that would actually work, but OK. It looks cool. I get it.”
I’m a drama guy, and maybe it’s just my age, but I’m a drama guy and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to do dark, real, gritty. Everything’s real except for one element. And that’s what you and I call fun,” said McFarlane.
Is this the Spawn you are looking for?
