Spawn creator Todd McFarlane has revealed that the recent success of Todd Phillips' Joker movie, starring Joaquin Phoenix, has helped increase interest in an R-Rated cinematic adaption of his popular character.

"We keep pushing for it. It's interesting cause the Marvel movies, the MCU, has been doing quite well and those are PG-13 movies," McFarlane told Phoenix News Times. "I keep trying to convince people that doing a dark, serious comic book movie will work. There's been so much success with these PG-13 movies that there's a resistance to them in Hollywood."

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"But since Joker came out, it proves what I've been saying for over two years to any executives I can talk to," he continued. "Serious dark comic books can work. R-movies can succeed. So now, all of a sudden, I've been getting a lot of phone calls saying, 'Todd, we need to talk to you about that R-rated dark thing you wanted to do.' So Joker did me a favor."

The recent release of Spawn #301 saw McFarlane's series become the longest-running creator-opened superhero comic book series. This distinction has earned him a place into The Guinness Book of World Records. The previous holder of the record was Dave Sims' 300-issue series Cerebus.

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