Trivia / Spawn (1997)

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Martin Sheen did this film because he'd always wanted to be in a comic book movie.
• Billing Displacement: John Leguizamo (the villain) gets top billing over Michael Jai White (the title character).
• Canon Immigrant: Jessica Priest was created for the film, since they couldn't use Chapel as Al's killer (he was owned by Rob Liefeld). She was later written into the comics, and eventually became the second She-Spawn.
• Creator Backlash: Michael Jai White didn't like the film at all.
• Creator Killer: This was the directorial debut of effects artist Mark Dippe. He never did another theatrical OR gritty R-rated film after Spawn; aside from Frankenfish he focused on family entertainment (most notably Garfield Gets Real and its sequels) and commercials since.
• Dyeing for Your Art: John Leguizamo and Michael Jai White had to endure long hours getting fitted into their hot and heavy suits. They only met out of costume once shooting wrapped and had to be told who the other man was.
• Executive Meddling: Despite the producers aiming for a PG-13 rating from the beginning (there's plenty of violence, but no gore or blood), and even test-screening it to kids who sat through it just fine, the original cut received an R rating. Not helping matters was the MPAA being too stubborn to actually tell them what parts of the film were too extreme for a PG-13 rating, forcing the filmmakers to figure it out for themselves (some of the Clown's more vulgar one-liners were cut or trimmed, while some violent scenes were trimmed down or used different angles/cuts).
• Follow the Leader: Was one of a number of darker hyper-stylized comic based films to come out in the 90's after the success of Tim Burton's Batman (1989). Ironically this came out the same year as its...err...less popular sequel that went in the other direction tonally with Batman & Robin.
• No Stunt Double: Michael Jai White was actually set on fire for one scene.
• Playing Against Type: The Clown was dubbed by Roger Carel in European French. That was an unusually dark and violent role in his voxography.
• Promoted Fanboy: Shin Megami Tensei co-creator and artist Kazuma Kaneko is a known fan of the Spawn series, often hiding little nods to the series in his designs. For the Japanese release of the movie he was allowed to create his own official Spawn art for the LDBOX release.
• Stillborn Franchise: In 1997 two sequels were on the cards, Spawn 2 due for release in 1998 and Spawn 3: The Ultimate Battle for release in 1999. Neither of these came to fruition and a sequel has been in Development Hell ever since.
• Throw It In!: During the chase scene, an accident happened that caused the fence to swing out and hit the stuntman riding the motorcycle to get hit for real. This wasn't planned and he managed to escape with minor injuries.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Alex Proyas was supposed to direct the film. He chose Dark City instead. Tim Burton was also considered.
  • Iced Earth, who did a concept album about Spawn, were offered a place in the soundtrack.
  • LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, Cuba Gooding Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Ving Rhames, Tupac Shakur, Will Smith, Wesley Snipes, Tony Todd and Denzel Washington were each considered for Al Simmons/Spawn.
  • Edward Norton was originally going to play Terry Fitzgerald but dropped out to work on Rounders.
  • Richard Harris was originally going to play Cogliostro but pulled out of the project.
  • Moby’s contribution to the soundtrack was intended to be a heavy industrial collaboration with Gravity Kills called "Suffocating," which was leaked online by the band, but due to Moby disliking the song, he instead worked with Butthole Surfers on "Tiny Rubberband."

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