Todd McFarlane Explains The Bigger Role Jamie Foxx Will Play In 'Spawn'

Jamie Foxx has not only been cast as Spawn but he will also be a considerably help to Spawn movie director Todd McFarlane.

McFarlane, who had teased potential A-List talent for the titular role in this film to Comicbook.com back at New York Comic Con, opened up about Foxx's role in the film which will be more than just acting during another exclusive interview. "I'd be a fool as a first time director not to listen to the pros in the start," McFarlane said. "Why would I go, "No, no, no, no, no. I know better than you." I've already had those conversations with him."

Throughout pre-production and actually shooting, McFarlane fully intends on learning from the Academy Award winning actor. "He's got a lot of thoughts on what he wants to do and how to do it," McFarlane said. "He's also very kind to go, 'At the end of the day, Todd, it's still your movie.' It's like I'm gonna be picking his brain as much as possible, and whoever else I get on the set. Not only just the actors, but also the editors and my cinematographer and everybody. Look, I'm gonna be arguably the most naïve, dumb guy on the set every day. So, as somebody who's been a CEO for decades now, the way to sort of make things work is just surround yourself with good people and give them ownership and give them input into the project. I mean, somebody, at the end of the day, has to make the final call. That's my position."

Still, McFarlane knows what elements of his film he intends to emphasize and execute. "What I will be married to is what the scene or the emotion of the scene is supposed to convey," McFarlen said. "So, if I can keep that emotion, and you tell me that we have to shoot that outdoors or indoors, that's sorta secondary to me. I'm going, 'Cool, as long as I can get what I want. As long as I can get the emotion, I can get the beat, if you're saying that we can shoot this faster by doing it as an exterior shot, and we can do it in five hours instead of doing it inside for ten hours, I don't care.'"

Though McFarlane will have a final stamp on the film, it will ultimately be a sum of its parts. "I don't think there's gonna be anybody that is gonna be looking at the change of that I made, going, 'That changed the movie. Oh my God. You know what? Todd originally had that guy going up two seconds there, but because of Todd decided they could walk it once better there,'" McFarlane said. "Who's making the decision ultimately as to the way it gets done? I am, right? So I go, 'Guys, the only time I'm gonna fight is when it's something that I think matters to the person who gave us the ten dollars for the movie'" A good scene actually does matter to be visually like, there. Because I think this scene will be one of the movies they're talking about."

As he had mentioned in ComicBook.com's New York Comic Con interview, the budget for Spawn will likely help it spawn a sequel. It has a fraction of the financial backing which most big comic book movies do today which is being made possible by behind-the-scenes choices.

"The things that are gonna be money savers to some people in the process and the production, are not gonna be things that I think are next giving away anything in the store," McFarlane said. "I think that not much give away story elements. But I go, basically what's on screen's not going to be a big deal at this point. Because why? In two days we have the moment that I think is one of the reasons that they're even gonna come to this movie because they saw it in the trailer."

Of course, McFarlane does have a vision and plan, which he wants fans to know will ultimately get the film through a smooth production hitting each of his story beats.

"We're not going to leave all this to chance once we start shooting," McFarlane said. "I think if they said, 'You've got to shoot it all on a sunny beach,' I think I could still get it to have the same impact to some degree of going, 'Okay, here is the emotional backs of all these characters. So, will journey be a big part of that? Of course it will. Of course you are.'"

The Spawn movie does not yet have a release date.