The Spawn movie has found both of its leading men in Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner - and fans may have Grey Goose at least partly to thank. Although, not in the way the average movie fan would expect it to among Hollywood filmmaking.

Whether officially or unofficially, Jamie Foxx has been waiting for Spawn for years, after expressing his interest directly to the character’s creator, Todd McFarlane. By comparison, the casting of Jeremy Renner as “Twitch,” the film’s other lead role seems to have happened overnight. While that’s not quite the case, McFarlane did explain to us how a meeting with Renner, a cosmic coincidence, and some vodka cocktails helped the stars align for his Spawn movie.

When speaking with McFarlane about the official casting of Renner as Detective Maximilian Steven Percival “Twitch” Williams III, the Spawn mastermind (and soon-to-be director) emphasized that the Avengers star’s versatility was a major factor. Having shown his acting chops across action, comedy, and chilling dramas, we suggested Jamie Foxx presumably approves of the choice - having traveled that same spectrum of movie genres himself.

The film’s writer/director/producer went one step farther, explaining the strange circumstances around his first meeting with Renner:

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah! Well here, I’ll tell you a funny story. I had gone up to Mr. Renner’s house to go talk to him about the character to see, you know, basically try to do the sell. I think that was a Thursday. So by the time I did some other things… I flew back to Phoenix, I wake up Friday morning. And Jamie does these interviews with Grey Goose, I don’t know if you’ve seen any of them.

For the unfamiliar, the interviews referred to are from the OFF SCRIPT series, a Grey Goose Production launched relatively recently. Developed with the goal of “celebrating film,” Foxx has already sat down with the likes of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, Melissa McCarthy, Vince Vaughn, and more. And on June 13th, he sat down to get inside the process of Jeremy Renner - his future Spawn co-star.

Okay. And the one that he posted on Friday, which was literally half a day from where I was, was him talking to Jeremy. And I’m going, ‘Wow! This is serendipitous.’ I’m going ‘There’s Jamie, talking to Jere– this could actually be my two stars here.’ So I poked Jamie and went, ‘Hey Jamie just FYI, I just came from Mr. Renner’s house it looks like you guys are friends…’

So Jamie really had no idea during that interview?

So fans can already have their first look at Spawn and Twitch, courtesy of Grey Goose.

Yeah, I didn’t know they were going to be talking! They didn’t know I was talking– he didn’t know I was talking, I didn’t know he was talking. Again, I don’t know when they recorded it either you know, they could’ve recorded it two months [earlier], I don’t know. But I go, ‘Oh, they at least know eachother in some capacity.’ So I text Jamie and go ‘Hey Jamie, we’re all trying to nudge the Renner team here, if you could chime in a little bit…’ So he helped too. They looked good together.

Since this odd bit of comic book kismet is too good to resist, we’ve embedded the link to the interview below. As McFarlane said, it’s possible neither Renner nor Foxx had the slightest hint of their future collaboration. Which makes Foxx’s praise take one more meaning than anyone could have known at the time.

Yeah, yeah, just go to to Jamie’s Grey Goose interview with Jeremy [Laughs]. And they didn’t know it at that point. But when I saw it on that Friday I went, ‘Wow, both these guys don’t know this could be it right here.’

So there you have it, Spawn fans. We may never know how Renner would have landed had the interview not taken place, but fans can simply relax that things fell as they did. Sometimes reality really is stranger than fiction.

MORE: Spawn Movie’s R-Rating Isn’t Just Nudity or F-Bombs

Source: Grey Goose