Todd McFarlane Gives Update on Kevin Smith's 'Sam and Twitch' TV Series

During a recent interview about the status of the Jamie Foxx-led Spawn adaptation, comic book superstar Todd McFarlane gave un update on Sam & Twitch, the BBC America series based on characters from the world of Spawn which is in development with filmmaker Kevin Smith.

McFarlane, who has taken a lot of Hollywood meetings since he decided to team up with Blumhouse and direct Spawn himself, admitted that the project seems stalled right now, but that it is still alive, and just kind of waiting for the next stage in development to happen.

"It's Hollywood," McFarlane told ComicBook.com. "Hollywood has its fits and starts. We'll see. Sometimes you just need things to help motivate people. So, maybe the attention from the Spawn movie may or may not help them. If it works commercially, on the Monday after the opening weekend, all of a sudden all of these ideas that I've been trying to push up the hill in Hollywood, I think they will open the doors and welcome them, with arms wide."

The film will be done on a smaller budget, and so expectaitons are not going to be as high as they ordinarily would be for a superhero/comic book adaptation. The film seems positioned to be more in line with smaller-scale horror hits like Hereditary or Get Out, or something like Blumhouse Tilt's Upgrade.

It will also represent McFarlane's directorial debut, although having an experienced and award-winning actor like Foxx in the lead role is likely something of a safety net in that respect.

No one has yet been cast for the Sam & Twitch TV series, and while Twitch will appear in the Spawn movie, Sam will not. It is not yet clear whether the two projects will share a cast or a universe.

Regarding the prospects for the movie -- which will be R-rated, with a supernatural edge that treats Spawn himself like a force of nature with no speaking lines -- McFarlane says he thinks it will find its audience.

"I'm confident," he said. "Maybe too much so. But, I think we're going to pull this one off."

McFarlane's Spawn movie does not yet have a release date. The film is expected to go into production by the end of the year. BBC America's Sam & Twitch is a bit farther off, but not dead yet.