If Todd
McFarlane was walking next to me on the street and told me to move out of the
way because a runaway bus was coming at me, I’d probably spend the last few
moments of my life giving the guy shit for being a delusional fool along with
getting out maybe two wisecracks about his arrested development as an comic
book artist before getting mowed down. That
is how little I trust what this guy says these days.
For years
now, he’s been telling anyone who’d listen that the abortion that was Spawn
will somehow be redeemed by another (but R-rated this time! Ooooooo) Spawn
film more tailored to his sensibilities (He now sees it as a cheapie horror
film where Spawn never really fully appears due to having no budget for
dramatic effect). And I love that he won’t let it go, sparing no opportunities to mock this. But he’s convinced himself that studios have been the
impediment to this vision becoming a reality, and so he’s decided to redefine
himself along the lines of another in-no-way-crazy
“maverick” who thumbed their nose at the studio system and got p-p-paaaaaaid
because of it, Mel Gibson.
In a
recent interview with MTV, McFarlane said “Well
you know, nobody wanted to give [Mel Gibson] the money, so he went out and did
it. [So] it’s like, "Fine, I’ve got an idea, I want to do it and nobody
wants to fund it. Well, don’t worry. Stop hurting yourself, guys. I’ll go and
do it myself, but I don’t want to f—ing hear you bitching when I’m sitting
there and I got the money. And you better hope this thing doesn’t work as well
as I think it’s going to work, because these are the moments where you don’t
like neurotic artists being independent of your system. So we’ll just rock on,
and if it doesn’t work, so what? But I’m telling you, it’s going to work, guys."
Todd,
lemme spoil the ending for you, pally. It will
not work as well as you think it’s going to work. Think this through, man.
You thought the original film would work. You thought Image Comics would work. You
thought spending a half a million on a baseball that was noteworthy for five
minutes would work. Your future forecast track record is roughly on par with
Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. I’m not trying to hate, so put the hater blockers
down. As a creative artist, I think you’re a great toy company CEO. Accept
that.
For more
on his “vision” for this Spawn film, check out the full
interview by clicking here.