We also had to hit him up with a few Spawn questions. He is currently writing a new Spawn feature script and has high hopes that it will capture Spawn's darkness and anonymity.

Todd is really a great guy and we had such an interesting conversation that you will have to check back for part 2 on Monday!

Read Part 2 Here!

Here is what he had to say,

Todd McFarlane Interview Part 1

Q: Congratulations on Torso, just wanted to start with a few questions from that, to you who would be the ideal Elliot Ness?

TM: Wow, you know it's interesting because Eliot Ness was a lot younger than people think he was, when he was in Chicago and he first started his job he was in his early 20's, I think Robert Stack was Eliot Ness in the Untouchables when I was a kid, he was a young guy I think he actually passed away at 44 so he was a kid, so some of the people that you think of, you could argue even Costner was too old for that role cause I think Ness was only like 26 when he put Capone away, he was kid. So now this is supposed to be taking place 6 or 7 years later, so mid 30's, it sort of opens it up a little bit but I think that a guy like, well one of the guys I think they are leaning towards in Matt Damon, Matt Damon sort of young enough and he has that boy charm that would work I mean if you are sort of talking big, sort of well known guys, a guy like DiCaprio sort of fits that bill too, young enough, flamboyant enough, you could fit that one that's there instead of going to an older guy, it's a young man's role like I said we need to bring that to people's attention how young this guy was when he did all that stuff.

Q: For the rest of the cast, are you looking at anyone already?

TM: I think what's gonna end up happening is with Fincher working on his movie Zodiac right now potentially having another one lined up right after that I think that we just go into the normal process of making a movie which is Ehren Kruger banging out this screenplay hopefully he can get it done in a decent amount of time and then all of a sudden all the studio notes come in and we

see how extensive for rewrites and redrafts and all those other things have to come in by the time they get a screenplay in working order my guess is Fincher is done with Zodiac, that one is in the can and he's sittin' at a point, it will be interesting to see if the one he's got in development keeps moving or whether this one, if a good strong script comes and a fast one that the studios might say, hey, can you just jump this one a little bit ahead and get on this one before you do your next one and then obviously at that point everyone would get over seriously with the cast minus the star. Prior to that people are going to make a few phone calls and call a couple buddies and see what everybody's interest is on different things.

Q: Has the studio given you a certain budget?

TM: Usually they budget the movie obviously based on the screenplay but I know that the last conversation that I was involved with, with Fincher, he goes, it's a period piece there's a couple big sets here you know, I can't see doing it for less than 65 [million]. Especially if you got a star on it. Again, can you do it cheaper if you're doing it independent with a bunch of unknowns, yeah sure, but you know if you're going to make it a real movie then it's not gonna be a cheap movie to make, it's not going to be overly expensive but it's not gonna be a cheap one.

Q: How loyal is it going to stay to the graphic novel?

TM: You know, that will be interesting, my guess is it will be loyal in terms of sort of the big Hollywood moments which are part of the big folklore of this story and that were written about in the graphic novel. You know there are things that happen in this story that people will go, ugh that is so Hollywood, but it actually happened that way. I think that the trick here is, and Krugers task is how do you make this movie so you actually give a crap about the lead character and all the rest of it is a bit of a backdrop if you will.both the movie A History of Violence and Road to Perdition, both of those were comic-graphic novels, they were made up. In this case, Torso is based on real events, but again both of those were comic book movies that had a fair amount of violence if you step back and look at it. But I think what succeeded in both of those movies was that the screenwriter was able to actually make the movie about the lead character and you went ok, you know what, I know there is going to be some violence in both of those movies but he still got females to come to it, it wasn't your typical action movie if you will so I think that Kruger is going to have to get in there and say ok, I understand this happened and I understand this happened, I understand that Eliot Ness comes into town riding a white stallion with a white hat and by the end of all this, it's literally the deconstruction of a hero, and so if he can tap into us, going how do you go from having the world in your hand, what Eliot Ness had when he walked into Cleveland to basically being run out of town. How does that happen? And the sort of the killer part of all that is just, you know, a couple of the catalysts that are there. Otherwise, we are just going to get into a serial killer movie that we have seen a dozen times, and so that has to be sort of what we all have to try to accomplish.

Q: Did you see Sin City and do you think Fincher's Torso will use a combination of green screen and real sets?

TM: It's gonna be interesting because, again it's been a while since I talked to David, when he was first thinking about it he said this should be black and white, cause he read the novel, which is in black and white, and he was going ok cool, cool. But at that time, Sin City hadn't come out, it was just coming out and obviously there is the success of it. It will be interesting to see, I haven't checked in with him yet, but to see where his head is at you know. Let's see what happens with Zodiac, let's see where his mind is, he's gonna want to try and do something so he's not just repeating himself on what his previous serial killer movies are and that may be one of the trips he takes. But again, people get weird when you say it's gonna be a black and white movie. I mean Sin City worked, but I think that Sin City was also appealing to a certain crowd, where I think Torso is beyond that crowd. Torso could have more of that Road to Perdition crowd. It can be big and wide ranging and it's not about let's go see if we can get all the comic book crowd and all the people that just dig big stylistic king fu movies, which is a big portion of the Sin City group. I don't know, we'll see how much the studios and everyone digs in their feet on what they think is going to come out of it. A lot of it is going to be predicated upon what Kruger writes too. I mean if he writes a very eloquent character driven story then maybe some of the visual tricks that may be in David's head may or may not work at that point.

Q: Regarding other projects you have, are you going to be moving forward with Spawn?

TM: I am currently writing that script and then once I get it done and rewrite it 3 or 4 more times then I can get it to a place that I like which is weird because the notes that have to come from Buddy is I am going to fund it myself so my schedule is to be behind the lens directing this thing before the end of this year.

Q: What did you learn from the original Spawn movie?

TM: From where I am at, I don't have the money to even think that big so what I need to do is get to the core of what the character is. I think, sort of more of a sophisticated spook movie instead of an action comic book movie which is what the first one was. If someone wanted to give me 65 million dollars I'd put a different head on it. I'm not going to be able to go there so I have to bring it down into a non cg movie which means that if has to be very character driven, which means the movie then isn't about Spawn quote unquote. Over the years I have sort of explained it to people, it's sort of like Jaws in that although the movie is called Jaws and it's about the shark, the shark isn't the lead in the movie. It's about the people that are hunting the shark. Now the shark has a big place in it, but it's more about the people that are hunting the shark and that's sort of what the genesis of the movie will be because I don't have the money to just run around and do Spiderman and X-Men special effects. It's going to be an R-rated, very gritty, very urban and the only thing that is going to be out of the ordinary will be this thing called Spawn. There isn't going to be any super villain, there's not going to be any bazookas and ray guns it's just going to be one element that is out of the ordinary and people won't even believe that it actually exists.it's a boogeyman story, which is a lot different then what we did the first time. I also know that the audience opening day, we had a 20 million dollar opening, they told me that 85% of that audience in '97 was over 14. Which means, fast forward 10 years that audience can handle an R-rated movie. An R rating isn't going to put a crimp on the success of this movie especially if I watch my dollars.

Q: Do you think you will do Spawn before Torso goes into production?

TM: That would be the plan, the only thing that would alter that would be if Torso got moved up just a little bit and whoever ends up distributing Spawn wants to sit there and ride on the coattails of the success, whatever that may be, of Torso. They say, hey instead of going out before let's go out there let Torso do its thing, maybe it does well and then we come 2 months later and say "From the Producer of Torso Comes.", that may be something that comes up.

Q: Are you thinking of all new casting, do you think Michael Jai White will be involved again?

TM: I doubt it. It's nothing against any of the cast it's just that the movie, you're never gonna really see Spawn in this movie so again even if I did get Michael you would never see him, so I don't need an actor to sort of do Spawns speaking lines cause he's never gonna speak just like Jaws never spoke.Spawn's never gonna speak.

Q: Have you ever considered doing another movie of one of your Spawn timelines that doesn't involve the Al Simmons character?

TM: Actually, it's taking all the things that are cool in the comic books and distilling it down into it's simplest form and putting it into something that is easily accessible. You don't have to know anything about Spawn the comic, Spawn the toys, or even the very first Spawn movie it will just be it's very own reinvention where you will go, wow that was cool and then go out and get a burger and fries. You don't have to come with any prior knowledge you just have to say, wow that was a cool movie. Which is why the movie is going to revolve around the humans in it. There is a character that I've got that has been there since issue #1, Twitch, it's really his story. It's about him and what happens in his life if all of a sudden something begins moving in the shadows, which intellectually we know will be this thing called Spawn, but how will that change the dynamics of that story. So what happens if you put a boogeyman in the middle of LA Confidential, how does it change the dynamics of what's happening with all those people. There are still real people dealing with real things but all of a sudden there's just one sort of supernatural element sort of off in a corner, how does that effects anyone's life one way or another and does anybody even really believe it.

Stay tuned to the IESB for Part 2 of the Todd McFarlane Interview!