Of "Torso" and "Spawn"

Todd McFarlane’s plans to adapt the Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko graphic novel “Torso” to the big screen took years to develop, despite the seemingly obvious commercial slam-dunk you’d expect for a story about Eliot Ness and the nation’s first serial killer.

Now with Par on board as a studio, David Fincher attached to direct and writer Ehren Kruger adapting the script, McFarlane is confident the project has enough momentum to get made.

“We’ve done potentially one thing that is beneficial when you’re on the creative side which is you get the studio partially pregnant” by signing guys like Fincher and Kruger, McFarlane says. “They’ve got some money out there.” McFarlane says Fincher envisions the film as having a budget around $65 million and that the script should be ready by the time Fincher wraps his next project, “Benjamin Button.”

McFarlane says Kruger was the right choice to script for a number of reasons. “One, the studio liked him. Two, a lot of the scripts he writes get made into movies. Three, he’s able to focus on key people, characters and move them through stuff.”

McFarlane bought the option for the comic, which was published by Image, from Bendis and Andreyko. He says the comics’ creators will be involved in some capacity. “I’m sure they’ll be around and given as much input as people want to give them.”

Other McFarlane projects in the works include a new “Spawn” animated series, for which his company is searching for an animation house. McFarlane says there has been plenty of interest in the skein from various cable outlets, though no deals have been signed. The show will be offered first to HBO, which aired the previous “Spawn” animated series, he says.

McFarlane also is planning another “Spawn” feature. “I’m writing that script right now and if I’m not directing that movie this year, that would surprise me,” he says. McFarlane says he plans to finance production of the film himself.