Frank Miller to Direct "The Spirit"

I just saw the trailer for the first time a couple weeks ago.

Then I finally went to the store and read "The Spirit".

My excitement levels dropped a couple notches.
 
I think this is going to be 2009's Speed Racer. Visually crazy, but not much else.
 
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Frank Miller Said:

THE SPIRIT Blog #9

TO MY READERS

Much has been the fuss in the comics' blogosphere about my SPIRIT movie—much justified, much hoped for, and much to my delight, that there has been a fuss at all. Some comics readers are terrified that THE SPIRIT will be a retread of my SIN CITY. Others quarrel over the change of the SPIRIT'S traditional blue hat, mask, and jacket, to black. These are understandable concerns for any lover of Will Eisner's masterpiece. I take this opportunity to address these concerns. With glee, I take this opportunity.

THE SPIRIT is, with every effort I give it, not a rusty, dusty old monument to the work of my beloved Mentor, so much as it is an extension of what I know to have been Eisner's central intent: to create something new, witty, and exploratory. That's what he did. That's what I'm doing.

It only resembles SIN CITY in that I am its director, and, well, yes, I have my ways and my proclivities. Luckily, I was able to discern three important proclivities I share with the Master. We both love good stories. We both love New York City. And we both love beautiful women.

(Please forgive my constant present-tense references to my dear friend. His creative force, and his force of personality, remains so strong in my mind that I can't often think of Will Eisner as a man who has left us.)

Now, about that blue suit.

Comic books have long traditions based on the limitations of pre-digital printing. Among these are traditions from the old newsprint-run-through-letterpress approach (yes, comics have been—and still do--follow tradition that dates all the way back to Gutenberg!). Bad printing on pulp paper is why it was necessary for every superhero to have his emblem printed on his chest, and that everything that's black be printed in blue. Hence Superman's preposterous blue hair. And the Spirit's blue hat, mask, and suit.

In tests—and we did several—the blue made the Spirit look like an unfortunate guest at a Halloween party. Going to black brings back his essential mystery, his Zorro-like sexiness. It also makes that red tie of his look very, very cool. So I made the call, with all respect to Eisner's creation, and most importantly, to what I perceived as his underlying intention. It was an easy call for me to make. The Spirit dresses in black, and looks much the better for it. As I said, my desire was never to slavishly follow the rules of '40s printing into campy oblivion, but to reintroduce Eisner's creation, via modern technology, to our brave new world.

And THE SPIRIT as some sort of SIN CITY REDUX? No, SIN CITY, that one's my own baby, folks, and it looks the way it does for its own reasons. THE SPIRIT is, and will always be, Eisner's SPIRIT. Anybody watching me on the set could attest that I very frequently drew a storyboard for a given shot first as I saw it, then as Will might've seen in—and, in every case, went with what I saw as Will's version.

To drive the point home, THE SPIRIT, despite any accidental impression left by that kickass teaser-trailer, is a full-color movie. SIN CITY—and I hope to make of it a movie trilogy all its own, come Hell and high water—is, visually, a playhouse for black and white.

THE SPIRIT's been one hell of an adventure, one that's made me love the world of comics more than ever.

I'm confident that it's going to be one hell of a good movie.

FM

He's redeemed himself somewhat. He's still ripping off The Shadow.
 
******* Frank Miller said:
And THE SPIRIT as some sort of SIN CITY REDUX? No, SIN CITY, that one's my own baby, folks, and it looks the way it does for its own reasons. THE SPIRIT is, and will always be, Eisner's SPIRIT. Anybody watching me on the set could attest that I very frequently drew a storyboard for a given shot first as I saw it, then as Will might've seen in—and, in every case, went with what I saw as Will's version.

Uh.... unless he's channeling the spirit of Eisner (no pun intended), his vision of how 'Will might've seen it' is still Miller's! It's not Eisner's vision because you think that's how he would have seen it Miller! Preposterous.

And giving him the black suit because the blue one was originally a printing error?! It doesn't bloody matter how it started! It worked! And unless you were testing with a day glo blue suit, I doubt he looked like a Halloween party guest. I have a feeling he would have looked more like, oh I dunno, a guy in a blue ****ing suit!?! Like the Spirit, maybe. Now he just looks like an extra in the Matrix.

That entire quote reads like Miller desperately and bitterly trying to defend himself. That man really needs to take his head out of his own arse, quick smart.
 
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Yeah this makes me feel more confident about how Miller's treating it. I think it'll be pretty good on its own. Course I've never read the Spirit so I'm going in blind kind of.
 
I'm with you guys. Miller has very eloquently responded to all the criticisms with more insight than those who complained, and more importantly, doesn't vaguely hype the movie.

Maybe Miller's gone crazy and lost 'it' but... he really, REALLY knows his craft. He knows it well enough that he can explain the nature of creative and artistic decisions with great ease and economy.

Good for him. I look forward to see where this might be going more so.
 
I'm with you guys. Miller has very eloquently responded to all the criticisms with more insight than those who complained, and more importantly, doesn't vaguely hype the movie.

Maybe Miller's gone crazy and lost 'it' but... he really, REALLY knows his craft. He knows it well enough that he can explain the nature of creative and artistic decisions with great ease and economy.

Good for him. I look forward to see where this might be going more so.

Really? Let's hear him defend All-Star Batman. Seriously. I want to hear what he has to say.
 
Looks like crap. Looks like the worst elements of the fun Wanted and thoroughly great Sin City distilled down and crushed together into another pointless flick with lots of shots of ridiculously elaborate backflips and falls that elict "Ha ha, wtf?"'s from the audience but are starting to turn into groans these days.

How many times can I watch Scarlett Johanssen or whatever other beauty-of-the-day, styled to **** by greenscreens, walk up to the protagonist in a "shocking" trailer moment. It's a genre that's been sucked clean. This could be at best a victory lap or final send off, but I bet it'll make a bit and they won't see it that way.

Or it'll bomb.
 
This looks very... different. It looks like it will be a visual orgasm, but I'm not sure if there'll be much to it. It just looks too out there to be taken seriously.

I don't like that we've already seen Samuel L. Jackson as The Octopus. That should have been a surprise.

This is definitely going to be another Speed Racer. Visually amazing, style over substance, critical and commercial failure, loved by a few. I hope I'll enjoy it.
 
I had the exact same reaction.

Miller needs to get back to writing the next few Sin City yarns and stop doing weird **** like this.

I couldn't agree more. I have never read The Spirit before, but from what I have read, it is nothing like what Miller is doing. I could of sworn a bunch of question marks were popping over my heads as I watched that trailer.
 
The style looks exactly like the Sin City movie. Why wouldn't he at least make it different enough so that it doesn't look like a cheap rip-off of Sin City?
 
The first minute and a half of that trailer would easily seem to imply that Miller is doing a high-budget porno.

Eisner would be so proud. :roll:
 
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The first minute and a half of that trailer would easily seem to imply that Miller is doing a high-budget porno.

Eisner would be so proud. :roll:

From the trailer it looks like the Spirit is a prostitute. I think Miller even described his version of him as a "whore."
 
I just saw the trailer and umm.... what?

As far as I can tell - unlike most trailers - Miller isn't just editing clips together of his movie. Think of it as a music video. There are some shots from the movie but they're deliberately out of context and surrounded by stylized concept art.

It's just not a traditional trailer.

Which is kinda cool.

The problem is that a trailer isn't meant to make you go, "What?" but "I want to see this movie."

THE SPIRIT trailer is very much "What" and not "Want". But I don't think it's bad, just... mislabeled?

We'll see. I'm still somewhat hopeful since Miller and Eisner I believe were friends and thus, you'd think Miller would get the Spirit pretty well. So I'm hopeful, just not convinced.
 

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