“If I go with the lower-budget movie, they’ll let me direct it. And if I go bigger, than I sit in the producer’s chair; if the budget’s too big, they’re not going to give me the chance at [directing] it. So I’m trying to decide whether I want to go big production, bigger money, bigger marketing — or just do something that’s a little bit smaller, more rock ‘n’ roll, and the way I’ve had it in my brain for the last five years.”

Although "The Writer" is almost at an end, fans have not seen the last of Sam and Twitch by a long shot. In fact, McFarlane said that he and "a big time producer" are currently developing a live-action hour-long "Sam & Twitch" television series. "It would be an hour-long drama with a little bit of the mystique stuff in it," he explained of the developing television proposal. "Twitch, more than Sam, sort of understands that there are odd things in New York that come as a byproduct of the melting pot. Everybody brings their culture and their beliefs and their superstitions with them, so part of their job is to wade through what's fact and what's fiction, because people get worked up over things. Every now and then, the stuff that they come across is inexplicable. But Twitch, to me, is the kid from 'The Sixth Sense,' now grown up. He's now an adult and has to deal with seeing things off and on his whole life, so now he sort of understands it. Sam still doesn't quite go for the ride, but because he has so much respect for Twitch, he'll trust Twitch when he says, 'I'm telling you something.'"

“The reality is that I’ve got a lot of pressure. They want me to deliver the script by the end of the year, which would basically mean we’d be shooting next year. So, that’s the goal right now.”

“I think it’s a quick shoot. It’s not going to be a giant budget with a lot of special effects, it’s going to be more of a horror movie and a thriller movie, not a superhero one. I’ve got so many people phoning now that I’ve got to get it done. I’ve made some promises to people this year.”

"Spawn is one, yeah,"
"And Mike Tyson. Those are two roles I would just love to do. I'm aggressively pursuing them."

Yeah. I’m hoping to have the script done hopefully in the next couple of months. I’ve talked to a couple of producers – can we get shooting by the end of the year if I can get that script in good order? But it’s a complete reboot. It’s a ten-million-dollar, R-rated supernatural movie that takes all the superhero stuff out of it. So for people who want to go see an IRON MAN redo, that’s not it. For people who like THE CONJURING, then it’s going to be right up that alley.

Not “horror.” Because that’s a weird word, right? Supernatural thriller. I grew up on things like ROSEMARY’S BABY and THE OMEN, things like that. Those movies only had one fantastic element in [them], and it was the supernatural or the ghost, and everything else in the world was normal. With superheroes, you have to have the hero, the super-villain, the fantastic headquarters, sometimes even the sidekick and you get more and more fantastic. This is just going to be THE DEPARTED and L.A. CONFIDENTIAL with a ghost moving around in it.

No, no, no. You know, Jamie was out at my office. I thought we were going to keep it on the q.t. I’ve talked to some pretty high-profile actors. I think he’s just putting the pressure on me to get the script done. So I sold him on my pitch. I go, “Here, I’ve got an idea that could keep you in the SPAWN movies for twenty years, but it can’t be about physicality. It has to be more about a little bit of acting and then this specter, this sentinel,

Well, we’ve got some high-profile talent that we have attached to a show that we’re doing. It’s Kevin Smith. We’re super excited about him. Obviously, he is attached to Comic Book Men in the family on AMC. He is attached to write, direct and EP a series based on the Sam And Twitch comic book series for us.

“They were originally introduced in Spawn, and it’s Todd McFarlane’s comic book series about these big-city homicide detectives who face a series of super grizzly crimes that are connected to the occult. Its kind of frightening and sort of gallows humor. It’s, again, procedural, but in a very modern, contemporary way. So each episode is closed ended, although there are certain character-serialized aspects to the storytelling.

It’s just in development right now. But I bumped into Kevin Smith at Sundance and he is beyond himself excited about this, about the show.

"Today, the official news is the script is done, at least the first rough draft,"

"I haven't officially tried to sell it to anybody in Hollywood, but I've already had over 14 inquiries from people coming my way,"

"So, in the next probably two months, right before San Diego convention, we will have a big announcement as to when, where, how, and why this thing is going to continue to get more momentum on it."

"The script is done. No more talk. It's time to start thinking about making this movie,"

"There's two big roles in the script. There's obviously sort of Spawn himself, although in a weird way it's not the biggest role, and then there's the cop. The cop is this character Twitch who's been there since issue #1. Twitch is the role in this one, and I sort of refer to him as my sheriff Brody, who is the sheriff in the Jaws movie. Although it was called Jaws, Jaws didn't really talk a lot in his movie, right? He just kind of showed up at the opportune time to make the movie worthwhile."

"It was sheriff Brody, the humans talking, chasing the fantastical thing that sort of made the movie, and to me, there's that element,"

"Everything else is normal in this story other than (gesture) the shadow moves, and at times even when it moves, the cop just sort of thinks he's losing his mind so he doesn't even trust that the shadow's moving. If you're a bad guy, then this thing is going to come and it's going to get you."

We just signed off on the script, and are going into budgeting. We're also having our casting meeting...It will be dark and heavy, serious, R-rated. It won't be a superhero movie. I don't think most people would categorize it as that. It will be a supernatural thriller, like a lot of good creep movies. The only thing in the movie that's fantastic is Spawn, and anything else is otherwise normal.

We don't want to muddy the waters. It's R-rated. Not like "Deadpool," where there was just a couple F-bombs and a naked butt. Not like "Logan" either...We're talking trauma, true trauma, as serious as possible.

I like to explain that it's my "Jaws." Spawn doesn't say a word the entire movie, and it's the same way with "Jaws." It's about the sheriff and the people, chasing the ghost. That's it...The lead role isn’t Spawn, the lead role is a cop, like Sheriff Brody from "Jaws." I think we can hook a fairly significant actor that we want. Unlike a superhero movie, we wouldn't need an actor to put on prosthetic (makeup) or go to the gym. We just need him to act.