The Spirit


Missy

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FRANK MILLER TO ADAPT/DIRECT FILM VERSION OF EISNER'S THE SPIRIT

Frank Miller’s next big comic book gig?

Adapting and directing a film version of his late friend Will Eisner’s The Spirit for Odd Lot Entertainment and Michael Uslan’s Batfilm Prods., according to Variety. Miller will talk about the gig at Saturday’s The Spirit movie panel at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, where the announcement will be officially made.

Odd Lot is financing the film, with Deborah Del Prete, Gigi Pritzker, and Uslan serving as producers. Odd Lot’s Linda McDonough and CBM’s FJ DeSanto will co-produce. Benjamin Melniker will executive produce. It will be the second time Miller has sat in the director’s chair – the first being his co-directing gig with Robert Rodriguez on last year’s adaptation of his Sin City. Miller is currently working on the screen play for Sin City 2, while a film version of his 300 is due in theaters next spring from Warner Bros.

"When (Uslan) invited me to do this, first I said I can't do this and then I said I can't let anybody else touch it," Miller told Variety. "I intend to be extremely faithful to the heart and soul of the material, but it won't be nostalgic. It will be much scarier than people expect."

“With his first film, Miller made Sin City live and breathe by capturing the look and style of his source material and expertly guiding an all-star cast,” stated Deborah Del Prete. “We cannot wait to see how he utilizes his endless talents in bringing Eisner’s vision of The Spirit to the screen.”

Uslan: “What makes Frank’s involvement with The Spirit particularly poignant was his special relationship with Will Eisner, captured last year in the book, Eisner-Miller. In it, you have two of the medium's greatest storytellers of sequential art and cinematic comics discussing the ins-and-outs of the compelling and controversial art form.”

Miller told i>Variety that he is working on a treatment that consists in large part of panels from The Spirit strip. Shooting on the film is due to begin late next spring.

The announcement at SDCC will be the second year a movie panel for The Spirit has been held. Last year, the production team hosted a panel at the convention, where it was announced that Jeph Loeb would be adapting the material for film.

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Lionsgate has moved up the release of Frank Miller's The Spirit from January 16, 2009 to December 25, 2008.

Based on the Will Eisner's comic, the action-adventure romance toplines Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes. Miller (Sin City) wrote the adapted script.

Lionsgate president of theatrical films Tom Ortenberg said the decision to shift the film to Christmas Day came after the project was presented to fans at New York Comic-Con.

Also scheduled for release on Christmas Day are Disney's Adam Sandler starrer Bedtime Stories and 20th Century Fox's Jennifer Aniston/Owen Wilson starrer Marley & Me.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=44735

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What's funny to me is that Miller thinks he's so hip by citing Eisner as his only influence when his art is clearly a Kirby-influenced style (almost undoubtedly) and yet when he's so staunch about faithful to source material he makes the movie as if it is an adaptation of a comic book that he created.

What a douche.

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Elektra = Sans Serif. Even Miller will, and has, copped to that.

Artwise, though, with the exception of liberal use of shadow and lighting, he looks nothing like Eisner. I've never heard him go out of his way to say that he only holds Eisner as an influence, but that's clearly bullshit.

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The entire concept of what Elektra is - the love from the past who comes back as an enemy. He said, point blank, that he lifted it wholesale from Eisner. If you're gonna swipe, yeah, Eisner's the guy.

But I'm on record here anyway as saying that Miller is easily the most overrated creator in he history of comics.

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But I'm on record here anyway as saying that Miller is easily the most overrated creator in he history of comics.

You just gave me an idea for the next Versus tournament: The most overrated comic book creator.

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So much for Dan Slott, then?

We do want there to be competition right?

In all fairness, Slott is hardly overrated. I don't think he's extremely rated. He's lucky to be around doign the book he's doing at the time he's doing it. Without the Skrully-ness or WWH-iness or Civil War-iness of the Marvel U his sales would not have validated any of his other projects. We've seen this in his track record.

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What's funny to me is that Miller thinks he's so hip by citing Eisner as his only influence when his art is clearly a Kirby-influenced style (almost undoubtedly)

When has Frank Miller ever cited Will Eisner as his only influence? I have heard him go on and on about how Jack Kirby is so great, and how all these old manga artists influenced his style, etc. so i have no idea where you got the impression that he snubbed Kirby in any way. Eisner is certainly his biggest influence but i have never heard him say it is his only influence.

Most overrated? I'd disagree there but he certainly is overrated. He's one of those guys whose turned in a few examples of brilliance and a whole lot of mediocrity.

Miller as a comics writer/artist/creator is far from overrated. The guy had one creation that i feel was overrated and not up to his greatest potential (Sin City), and one book that even though i greatly admire it's ambition and intentions just didn't work for me (Dark Knight Strikes Again), but everything else is GOLD.

Miller as a filmmaker though i feel is overrated. I will check out The Spirit movie though just because i love the Spirit comics and i just am really intrested in seeing Miller tell a Spirit story, and even though i am not a fan of his visual style at all i am willing to give it a shot.

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I freely admit that, despite every effort not to do so, I'm carrying my fanboy expectations around with me, and am getting ready to pitch a "but it's not like the comic!" hissyfit.

This could turn out to be one of those movies, like I Robot or Constantine, that I could have enjoyed on its own merits if I wasn't too busy tallying all the changes made. I'm trying not to do that. I will probably be unsuccessful.

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