Lionsgate has picked up the distribution rights to the live action adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit movie, written by Frank Miller.
“Will was a dear friend, a mentor, and translating his vision to the screen will be a labor of love,” Miller said.”The Spirit” will be produced by Pritzker and Del Prete, along with Lionsgate’s Mike Paseornek and Batfilm’s Michael Uslan. Benjamin Melniker will exec produce with Steve Maier, and Linda McDonough and F.J. DeSanto are co-producers.
As great as Frank Miller is, this film will be his first solo directing gig. He’s only co-directed one other film – Sin City with Robert Rodriquez, and I’m not sure learning the ropes from the man who breaks all the rules is the best way to learn a craft, but hey, that’s just me.
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While I know I shouldn’t judge a creator based on their work and assume they can’t adapt, but Miller’s hard-edged violent dynamism is just about the PRECISE opposite of Will Eisner’s character-based rumpled humanistic Spirit.
I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t see Miller’s personal vision in any way aligning with Eisner’s. If it turns into “Frank Miller’s Spirit” I’m going to be very dissapointed.
My thoughts exactly. I know Eisner was an inspiration to Miller, but this has the potential to be pretty bad. Comparing Eisner’s light, masterful story touches to Miller’s gritty, heavy-handed “realism” is like the difference between a surgeon and a butcher. I can appreciate each within the confines of their chosen profession, but the butcher shouldn’t be in the O.R. with an apron and a meat cleaver expecting to be Hawkeye from M.A.S.H.
According to a couple quotes on Wikipedia, Miller’s interpretation of the Spirit is more “terrifying” (no surprise) and he’s “a bit of a slut.” Not sure that inspires confidence in me.
Denny Colt is not Batman.
And even Frank has to realize that not every single character needs to be a grotesque musclebound gargoyle who mysteriously attracts strippers who want to lay him.
With no idea what the finished product is going to look like, I intend to remain open-minded. That said, I worry that if it goes wrong, it will become the general public’s perception of The Spirit, much like Howard the Duck used to mean a progressive, subversive comic book wise@$$, and now it means a notorious Hollywood flop.