Jeremy Renner has officially joined the “Spawn” reboot film, playing opposite Jamie Foxx, who plays the titular character. Deadline is reporting that the ‘Avengers’ star is making the leap to R-rated superhero fare to play Detective Twitch Williams in the Blumhouse film by first-time writer-director Todd McFarlane, who created the character back in the ‘90s.
For those that aren’t familiar with the comics, Twitch Williams plays a vital part in the “Spawn” lore. The relationship that Twitch and Al Simmons, aka Spawn, have is similar to that of Commissioner Gordon and Batman. Since Spawn is a ridiculously scary demon from Hell, he needs a human counterpart to help him along the way. Enter Jeremy Renner’s Twitch.
“As a first-time director, I wanted to surround myself with the most talent and the most skilled people I can on all fronts,” McFarlane said. “I was lucky enough to land Jason Blum and then Jamie Foxx, and I knew the person on screen the most is this police officer, Twitch Williams. We needed as strong a person as possible because he will be the face of the film. I took my naïve Hollywood approach again, and said let’s start at the top and work down. Jeremy was at the top. I’m a huge fan of his. The character doesn’t need to be a bodybuilder or GQ handsome. I was looking for somebody who’s a person you’ve met before; I needed someone who can pull off the grief of an average human being. I’ve seen Jeremy do that in more than a few of his movies. He was at the top of my list, just like Jamie.”
“Spawn is King Arthur and Twitch is Sir Lancelot, and this isn’t about physicality, or jumping over buildings,” he continued. “This is more a brawn and brain combination…”
Producer and Blumhouse mastermind, Jason Blum said, “Jeremy is the ideal choice for Twitch Williams. He radiates honesty, intelligence and a hard-working, everyman charisma, the same qualities that make Twitch such a compelling character.”
Obviously, with a cast led by Renner and Foxx, and Blumhouse as a production company, “Spawn” shouldn’t be a tough sell when Blum and McFarlane start to meet with distributors. McFarlane hopes the franchise potential and the low production budget of only $10-12 million should entice a bidding war over the R-rated film.