Steve Niles recently sat down and chatted with Comic Book Resources big-shot Jonah Weiland about comics movies and things in between. Weiland managed to get on the subject of the Spawn 2 screenplay, which Niles co-wrote with creator Todd McFarlane.

"What Spawn 2 is about is here's this guy who's been dead and gone for over 10 years. It was five years from [the time he died up till the first movie] and then add another five or six years to that," Niles said. "He's been dead and sitting in an alley for a long time! He's been forgotten. He's a supernatural force.

"What we're doing in Spawn 2 is we're telling three or four separate stories; Sam and Twitch and a case they're on about a ritual murder, a criminal conspiracy with the Police that involves the area around Rat City and basically all these story lines intersect at Spawn and he affects each one of them."

As has been clear from the start, Spawn 2 won't be a retread of the original. "The only thing Todd said is he didn't want to repeat the same thing he did before. The first Spawn movie represented Spawn at the time. Now, we're all older and he wanted to do something a little different," Niles told Weiland.

"This movie isn't going to be guided by special effects. This will be a story-driven movie."

Niles reports that the script has been turned in to the studio and they are waiting for notes or further word. "It's just like anything [in Hollywood.] Step-by-step. I'm not going to say too much because if I say, 'Yeah, it's a go,' it'll be cancelled by the time I get home."

For more about Niles work, including commentary on Fused and 30 Days of Night, presented in text and audio, check out the complete interview at Comic Book Resources.

A posting on Spawn.com reveals that Todd McFarlane and Steve Niles have completed their script for the Spawn sequel. The report indicates that producer Don Murphy (From Hell) has signed off on it and it is now in the hands of Columbia Pictures.

Niles and McFarlane hope this will be the final draft and will meet with studio approval.

Thanks to SuperheroHype for the lead.

Although the Spawn sequel will likely be a departure from the original, John Leguizamo told SCI FI Wire that he'd love to return to the role of The Violator.

Leguizamo told SCI FI that he hopes the sequel will be darker than the original. "I hope it's dirtier too. There was an R version [of Spawn] that was pretty nice," the actor said. "but I'd like this one to really be R as it should be, as the comic book was."

Of course, getting into Clown gear doesn't come cheap. "It's got to be really huge money for me to do that again," he said. "That makeup, I had blisters on my face, big pus-filled calluses around my eyes. It really wreaked havoc. I used to be handsome, and all of sudden that wrecked my image."

Leguizamo is not currently attached to Spawn 2. There's been no word as to whether or not the Violator character returns either.

Spawn.com recently published a brief Q & A with comic creator and screenwriter Steve Niles. Niles talked about things like his upcoming title Fused and his other comic works, but he also dropped a few hints about Spawn 2, which he's writing the screenplay for.

"The script is coming along great. I’m here at Todd’s working on it right now, and it’s coming together," Niles said. "So far no problems with putting in content. One of Todd’s requests for Spawn 2 was that it would be R rated, so there hopefully wouldn’t be any issues with content. There are a couple scenes (and I won’t give them away) that will have even you covering your eyes. As for Spawn’s involvement? The entire story revolves around him."

Thanks to Steve's official website SteveNiles.com for pointing the way.

Comic and screen writer Steve Niles (Fused) informs the Comics Continuum that work on Spawn 2 is proceeding apace. The script, by Niles and McFarlane, has gone through several polishes.

"I think the biggest surprise will be how different this film will be from the first," Niles told The Continuum. "I think Spawn 2 will be much more accessible to all types of movie fans because it will cross the lines between the superhero, horror and crime genres."

Previous reports, stretching back several years now, have indicated that plans are for Spawn to appear less as a superhero and more as a shadowy force of nature in the sequel.

Don Murphy (From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) is producing.