Avengers member Jeremy Renner joins Oscar winner Jamie Foxx in the latest Spawn film. Foxx is set to play the title character Spawn, or Al Simmons as his character is originally known as before the Hellspawn warrior status. Renner is locked in to play Detective Twitch Williams, who is basically the Sir Lancelot to Spawn’s King Arthur. The story follows Simmons, a betrayed CIA black ops member who gets murdered by his crew and then gets double-crossed again in Hell. Simmons becomes a demonic-looking creature named Spawn, hellbent on ridding the world of evil and villainy.
Making his directorial and debut with this film is Todd McFarlane. McFarlane created the Spawn comic book series back in 1992. It is not only his directorial debut, but McFarlane alone also created and wrote the screenplay. He has also written for several other comics like The Amazing Spider-Man . While this is his first venture into directing, McFarlane has produced several Spawn- and Spider-Man-related projects including the first Spawn film in 1997.
When it came to choosing Jeremy Renner as Twitch Williams, the process actually wasn’t too difficult. “We needed as strong a person as possible because he will be the face of the film,” McFarlane explains to Deadline . “I took my naïve Hollywood approach again, and said let’s start at the top and work down. Jeremy was at the top. I’m a huge fan of his. The character doesn’t need to be a bodybuilder or GQ handsome. I was looking for somebody who’s a person you’ve met before; I needed someone who can pull off the grief of an average human being.”
Both Foxx and Renner have dipped their toes in the comic book movie realm. Foxx portrayed the villain known as Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 back in 2014, whereas Renner has played Hawkeye in the Avengers films since 2012.
Blumhouse Productions will be producing the film. The production company is famous for most of the latest hit horror films and franchises including Paranormal Activity and Insidious . It is not surprising that they’ve decided to take on the dark, even creepy anti-hero Spawn franchise.
The film begins production in the fall and McFarlane is firm that it will have an R-rating. According to Collider , McFarlane mentioned it at Comic-Con just last year. “It’s not gonna be a typical superhero comic book [movie]. It’s gonna be a dark, moody, real world.” Sounds like Spawn fans won’t be disappointed.
