‘Spawn’ Movie: Todd McFarlane Says Greg Nicotero’s Designs Are Spectacular And Creepy

Todd McFarlane’s new Spawn movie isn’t going to be what some people are expecting, and Greg Nicotero‘s creations are one of the many reasons why.

McFarlane is working on bringing Spawn back to the big screen, but there’s going to be much more of a horror influence on this outing than in the previous adaptation. Having Nicotero on board only helps that end goal, and during a recent interview with ComicBook.com’s Jim Viscardi McFarlane revealed that Nicotero’s is really outdoing himself with the character designs.

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if I told you. He did some 3D rendering for me,’ McFarlane told ComicBook.com. “It’s spectacular. I mean, it’s just … it’s spectacular. And they’re like little maquettes, if you will, but the upside of it is that when I go to the studios, I want to walk in there, and before I hand them the new script then whatever … get them to see some of the visuals and hold the character in their hand, so that they understand how not a superhero comic book it is, right? When you hold it … I showed a couple people some of the work, and within seconds, as soon as you see it, you just go, “Oh, this isn’t gonna be the formula?” And it’s like, “S***, no.”

Nicotero’s designs serve to best illustrate that this isn’t your typical superhero film, both to studios and audiences. Without the other elements to present, those differences are hard to envision by just reading a script.

“So when you say, ‘I want to do something creepy.’ And then you hand it, they go, ‘Wow, okay, I didn’t think it was gonna be that creepy.’ I’m hoping that will set the stage for when they read the script, that they don’t … I let a couple studio people read it, and I think like I said, it’s too hard to … I didn’t give them any pre context with it.”

“I think, personally, I think if somebody goes in thinking it’s gonna be one thing, action-oriented, PG-13 movie, and you start reading by page, 20, 30, you go, ‘Hey, this isn’t heading in the direction.’ You’ve got off on the wrong foot, right? Tough to come back, because people were thinking they were getting vanilla ice cream,” McFarlane said. “And they’re going, ‘Well, this tastes like chocolate.’ So once your mind’s set up. So I want to make sure that when we go in there, because I’ve got music clips and a bunch of stuff that I can set the mood. I mean, ultimately, they need to think that the script’s gonna be strong enough that it makes the money back.”

“And if not … Like I said, if not, then there are people on the outside that go … I mean, I’m holding them at bay, because I’d like to have the studio in at the beginning, instead of coming back around just for a distribution deal. Anyway, we’ll see,” McFarlane said.

Spawn has no official release date.

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