Todd MacFarlane has finally made it happen: he’s working on a new low-budget horror movie based on his comic book character Spawn. He’s teamed up with Jason Blum and Blumhouse Productions to get the film made, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The movie site is reporting that McFarlane has already finished the first draft for the script and will also take on the directing duties for the film.

Comic authors turned directors don’t always fare well, and we saw how Frank Miller stepping into the director’s chair did not bode well for his take on The Spirit. Co-directing with Robert Rodriguez on Sin City: A Dame To Kill For also reaped a bag of mixed results.

As a low-budget horror film there’s the possibility that this could end up being something a lot more savvy and passionate than the typical, bloated Hollywood flick. Films like It Follows and the original Evil Dead movies benefited greatly from a lower budget, being able to take risks you oftentimes don’t see in the traditional studio projects.

McFarlane had been talking about doing a movie project for Spawn for ages. So in a way he should have the plot and details of how he wants to shoot the film plotted out in his head. Heck, the only thing he’s missing is the cast – and hopefully he can either get Michael Jai White back or Wesley Snipes, because they’re both down for doing low budget flicks. I can’t think of any other black actors in the industry today who are badass; they’re in short supply with the rest of the badasses in Hollywood, or geriatric.

McFarlane had hoped that Warner Bros., or NetherRealm Studios would make use of the licensing while they had it to include Spawn in Mortal Kombat X, but nothing came out of it. It’s a real shame because Spawn would have been right proper perfect for a DLC character in Mortal Kombat X. There is literally no guest character who would have been more perfect for that game than Spawn.

Anyway, we’ll get to see the assassin turned hell-spawn on the big screen hopefully sooner rather than later, assuming everything goes to plan with the production.