According to a new report over at Deadline, Jeremy Renner has just climbed aboard Todd McFarlane's Spawn, where he'll be playing (checks notes incredulously three times in a row) Twitch, a detective whose "intelligence and intuition" will eventually lead him to cross paths with Jamie Foxx's demonic, crime-fighting superhero, Spawn.
McFarlane, who's set to make his directorial debut on this project, had the following to say about Renner's casting:
“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.”
Specifically pointing out that Jeremy Renner is not "GQ handsome" feels like something of a backhanded compliment (not to mention inaccurate), but McFarlane's clearly hyped to have landed the actor for the role, and his enthusiasm is, admittedly, infectious.
Most recently, Jeremy Renner appeared in Jeff Tomsic's Tag, where an on-set injury forced the production to CGI normal arms onto Jeremy Renner after Jeremy Renner's actual, very broken arms were placed into casts (there, now you don't have to express confusion about the headline in the comments).
We've long been skeptical that Todd McFarlane's Spawn is a good idea, but credit where credit's due: he's assembling a talented cast thus far, and we're certainly intrigued. Stay tuned for more on this one as it becomes available.