Jeremy Renner has been cast in the Blumhouse horror comic book adaptation ‘Spawn’ as police detective “Twitch,” otherwise known as Maximillian Williams. Even though the film revolves around the character Spawn, formerly the human Al Newman (Simmons in the comics), director/comic book creator Todd McFarlane has stated that this character will only appear lightly in the film, in keeping with horror movies like ‘Jaws’ and John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’, in order to maximize the impact when he does appear onscreen.
Jamie Foxx is playing Spawn/Al Newman, a CIA black ops operative who is betrayed and killed by his teammates. He agrees to become a “Hellspawn” warrior in order to return to Earth to be with his wife, but as deals with the devil never work out, he returns as a charred monster. He is tasked with collecting evil souls to send to Hell and somehow, the fearless Detective Twitch winds up helping him on his quest. Besides being brave and intelligent, Twitch is nearly a flawless marksman… er, kinda like that other character that Renner is best known for playing.
According to McFarlane:
“As a first time director, I wanted to surround myself with the most talent and the most skilled people I can on all fronts. 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.”
Renner is best known for playing Hawkeye/Clint Barton in the various Marvel Comics movies, but he has received acclaim for far more. He has been nominated for the Academy Award twice, first for ‘The Hurt Locker’ in 2010, then for ‘The Town’ in 2011. He was most recently seen the comedy ‘Tag’, and before that starred in numerous movies, whether action, drama or comedy, including ‘Wind River’, ‘Arrival’, ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation ‘, ‘American Hustle’ and ‘The Bourne Legacy’. He will next be seen in the untitled ‘Avengers 4’ next May, although before that, his voice will be heard in the animated flick ‘Arctic Justice’ due this fall.
What do you think of Renner as Twitch? He’s not as small and awkward, but does his personality match?
Source: Deadline
