Todd McFarlane has been touting the upcoming Spawn movie for years, and he admits that it’s been a challenge for the gung ho comic book creator to be patient as the process unfolds.

But now one key portion of its development hell phase is ending, and a new chapter is beginning for the project, based on the Image Comics books centering on a former black-ops agent who makes a deal with a demon after being betrayed and killed.

King Spawn now has a completed script, one that McFarlane and producer Jason Blum’s Blumhouse have enough confidence in to start meeting with directors for the movie. The news comes two years after they commissioned a script from rising scribe Matt Mixon, Falcon and the Winter Soldier creator Malcom Spellman and Joker Oscar nominee Scott Silver.

After finding a director, the team will then approach studio partners. It’s unclear if Jamie Foxx, who has long been attached to star, will still be involved, as the eventually director will also have their own vision for the project. McFarlane says it is expected to be a mid-budget movie (not a $200 million tentpole), but also heftier than the budgets of a typical Blumhouse movie.

As they prepare to talk to studio partners, McFarlane notes that it only helps their cause that two of the biggest movies of the year will likely be R-rated comic book movies: Deadpool & Wolverine, which is out this weekend, and October’s Joker: Folie à Deux, which Silver co-wrote.

“Deadpool is a fun R. Something like Joker 2 is a serious R. Our movie is going to be super serious and dark and gritty,” says McFarlane. “It’s going to be an at times a heavy movie. If you like serious drama, with meaningful themes that are relevant and that may even some reflection of the world we live in, then this has a lot of those elements in it.”

McFarlane once toyed with directing the project, which has hit snags including COVID-19 slowing the industry, and the writers strike also pausing development. The comic book creator, who launched Spawn in 1992, is known for hard-charging (he might say, impatient) attitude, and admits waiting has been tough. But Blum gave him a piece of advice that once frustrated him, but he now sees as wise.

“As time has gone by, it may have been the most enlightening thing he has said to me,” says McFarlane of a conversation they had during a slow period during the coronavirus pandemic. “He said, ‘Todd, a movie gets made when it’s ready.’ And I’m like, that’s easy for you to say, you’ve got ten movies!’ But if you try to rush it right, and you try to cut corners because you’re trying to hit a false deadline, you’re not doing a service to your project.”

On Monday, both McFarlane and Blumhouse tweeted the first page of the King Spawn script. Says McFarlane of the draft: “That’s a big hurdle We’ve been waiting to get to this point.”