This site expands on Bob Andelman's biography, "Will Eisner: A Spirited Life" (M Press/Dark Horse), with new interviews and updates on related projects that bring greater depth and color to the portrayal of the legendary comic book/graphic novel artist and writer.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist @ Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, Jan. 19, 2009
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (http://www.ajff.org/) will be showing Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist, at Lefont Sandy Springs, on Monday, Jan 19, 2009, 4:40pm. It's possible a representative from ASIFA-Atlanta will introduce the film and do a Q&A. This will be the Atlanta premiere of the film, which is a documentary on Will Eisner. Mark Mayerson writes about it here:
Frank Miller's noir craftsmanship inspired actresses Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes to embrace the femme-fatale flourishes of his newest film
Bob Thompson
National Post
December 22, 2008
The renowned graphic novelist Frank Miller knows how to write about anxiety, but he might have trouble dealing with his own as the opening of The Spirit approaches.
The Spirit is Miller's much anticipated live-action film version of the classic 1940s Will Eisner newspaper strip and subsequent comic book series. Opening on Christmas Day, the movie arrives with an important question: Can Miller --on his first solo directorial effort -- translate the stylish 1940s noir images onto the big screen?
There's a good chance he can. For one thing, Miller appreciates The Spirit's creative origins. He was an Eisner friend and associate, and admits that he based some of his more popular graphic novels on Eisner's tones and textures. Miller also codirected and co-wrote the digital Sin City film with Robert Rodriguez and penned the popular graphic novels Sin City and 300 (the movie became a worldwide hit). And Miller also famously made over Batman as the brooding Dark Knight in comics that inspired Christopher Nolan's hit movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
An early incarnation of the Spirit’s sidekick has been the center of controversy for many years. Here’s a look at the past issue the character faced.
Whether you agree with Frank Miller’s interpretation of the character, see eye to eye with the film’s similarity to his Sin City’s, or believe he butchered Eisner’s masterpiece, The Spirit has dealt with serious issues. The Spirit is considered to be one of the first comics with serious adult tones, creating a road for mainstream comics.
In the series’ living city, its inhabitants were always occupied with things. Whether they were criminals wanting to thieve, or female fatales in New York- style tenants, the people always had drama to deal with. According to Eisner, it “gave [him] an adult audience.” He managed to fill the pages with dramatic stories that were crime-noir dramas that had adventure, love stories, mystery and sometimes horror, and of course its noted humor.
One of the comedic elements that Eisner tried to inhibit was through The Spirit’s sidekick. Ebony White, an African-American citizen growing up in the harsh city, would constantly aid the masked hero. Not necessarily a sidekick like Robin or Bucky who would help the hero fight, but more of an Alfred/Jarvis assistant who would help in tough situations and drive him around in a taxi.
NEW YORK -- Apart from Marvel's Stan Lee, if there is a figure who represents the link between the comic books of old and the movies coming to a theatre near you, it's Frank Miller.
The artist-writer, who gave us 300, Sin City and the Dark Knight incarnation of Batman, began his career in the colourfully ink-stained New York-based cauldron of comic-book art, mentored by the likes of Jim Shooter, Neal Adams -- but most of all, the legendary and prolific Will Eisner.
Theirs was a strange, combative relationship -- one in which Miller is finally getting the last word, three years after Eisner's death, making his solo directorial debut with a stylized movie of Eisner's signature noir hero from the '40s, The Spirit. Wherever he is, the female-form-obsessed Eisner must appreciate the casting -- Scarlett Johansson (Silken Floss), Eva Mendes (Sand Saref) and Jaime King (Lorelei), all playing various forms of femmes fatale tormenting our mordant hero (Gabriel Macht).
The Eva Mendes Spirit Interview: Kicking Ass And Revealing Some Too (NewsBlaze.com)
By Prairie Miller
Even though Eva Mendes has a reputation lately for playing simultaneously gorgeous and evil in movies, like The Women, Ghost Rider and now Frank Miller's comic book thriller The Spirit, don't ever talk to her for a minute about being all body and no brains.
At this gab session get-together for The Spirit, Eva, in the midst of fighting off a serious case of jet lag, gave a detailed discourse on her philosophy of vamp attitude, while listing the various thrills of flaunting 1940s 'dames' and 'broads' type of appeal, all in a day's work. And how an uncontrollable lust for diamonds on the part of her materialistic-minded femme fatale Sand Saref, is not necessarily all about doing the gold digger thing. But don't even think about turning Eva into a mere female accessory, hot or not, in a movie, even if the leading man, whether in Spirit only, happens to be Gabriel Macht. In other words, revealing her fabulous body in nothing but a towel slipping off her rear end is fine, but there had better be an impressive high IQ in evidence behind it, no pun.
What was it exactly that lured you into The Spirit?
EVA MENDES: Yeah I think...Um, what was the question?
Well, what turned you on about your character Sand Saref?
EM: Yeah, I loved that my character was created in the 1940s. So you know, I have this real 'dame' and 'broad' kind of appeal to the character. And she was just so over the top. And fantastical. And, she has some of the best lines in the movie, you know what I mean? Like, 'Shut up and bleed!'.
That's one of my favorites. Which, strangely, I've used it since! But for me, this movie was just so collaborative. That was the main thing. Am I even answering your question? I'm sorry, I'm in the middle of jet lag!
Bob Thompson: Scarlett Johansson and company get The Spirit (National Post)
By Bob Thompson, National Post
If you can't wait to catch The Spirit, you are not alone. For those who might not know, The Spirit is the Frank Miller live-action film version of the classic 1940s Will Eisner newspaper strip and subsequent comic book series.
Opening on Dec. 25, the movie arrives with lots of anticipation and a question; as in can Miller translate the 1940s noir images onto the big screen? At least Miller gets The Spirit. He was an Eisner friend. And his resume suits the challenge. Plus his intention to shoot the movie in the fancy Sin City CGI style made sense to just about everybody.
(CBS) From Denzel Washington and Johnny Depp to Will Smith and Nicholas Cage, actress Eva Mendes has worked with some of the Hollywood's hottest leading men.
Mendes is now co-starring in the "The Spirit," a film based on a 1940s comic book series. She plays Sand Saref, a woman who has a special relationship with The Spirit.
"They are childhood sweethearts, explains Mendes. "This film is visually stunning. It comes from the creative, genius mind of Frank Miller. What's really unbelievable with my character is I get to play not only a jewel thief, but a woman who's been married 14 times and killed every last one of her husbands. I mean, ladies, is that not just -- it's a sick fantasy, but, still a fantasy. Somewhat of a fantasy."
"Now she is quite a dame," adds Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. "[She's] got the lashes."
"She's a dame. She's a broad," says Mendes. "We paid homage to the women back then, in the 1940s -- the Rita Hayworths and Bette Davis' of the world, the Ava Gardners. I had a lot of fun paying homage to those women."
Gabriel Macht as the title character in the comic book-inspired film 'The Spirit,' opening Friday.
Who was that masked man?
The star of "The Spirit," opening Friday, may not be as recognizable – with or without the mask – as castmates Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Mendes, but the strong-jawed Gabriel Macht is ready for his closeup.
To get in the head of a character grappling with identity issues even as he wrestled with the bad guys, Macht plastered every inch of his trailer with storyboards and Xeroxes of the 1940s comic strips by Will Eisner that the movie was based on.
"His trailer was full of Spirit-phanelia," marveled Jackson. "He was dealing with his identity crisis all the time."
When you talk about the comic book characters who have been around the longest, the first ones that will come to mind are Superman, who first appeared in 1938, and Batman a year later. In both cases, you can probably list and discuss their movie and television incarnations, as well as the cartoons and comic books in which the two have appeared. Then there's the case of Will Eisner's The Spirit, a pulpy comic character created by legendary cartoonist Will Eisner for a Sunday comics insert in 1940 that's only ventured off the comic pages once, in 1987, for a television movie.
The Spirit is the reincarnated alter ego of police officer Denny Colt, who was shot and killed on duty but then returned later as the indestructible crime fighter who works with Commissioner Dolan to take down Central City's tougher criminal element. Eisner's work was influenced by the early days of film noir, but it was also filled with humor and pathos and a never-ending supply of beautiful femme fatales to tempt and tease The Spirit. The character continued to appear in strips and comic books throughout the '40s, '50s and '60s, and then was reprinted extensively after that, most recently in a series of hardbound archives from DC Comics, who also resuscitated the character with new stories by top comic book talent.
When it came time to give The Spirit his first big screen feature film, there really was only one man to call for the job, and that was Will Eisner's close friend and frequent sparring partner Frank Miller, whose work during the '80s and '90s was as much influenced by Eisner as it was an antithesis to the virtues of The Spirit.
When we left the cast and crew of 'The Spirit' yesterday , actor Dan Lauria (who plays commissioner Dolan in the film) expressed his enthusiasm for the wardrobe he had in director Frank Miller's modern noir vision of Will Eisner's comic.
"I loved the costume you picked out for me. Right out of Bart MacLane's closet," Lauria said, referring to the actor who appeared in over a hundred classic movies including 'The Maltese Falcon'.
Of course the most important costume to get right were the threads Gabriel Macht wore as The Spirit.
"I worked hard on Gabe’s costume because at first it looked really foolish, until we spruced you up with the black outfit and everything," Miller told reporters but credits costume designer Michael Dennison for bringing the leading man's look to fruition.
Eva Mendes captures 'Spirit' of film genre (NJ.com)
by Lisa Rose
The Star-Ledger
Thursday December 18, 2008,
Glamorous, enigmatic and cutthroat in a literal way, the women in films and graphic novels from Frank Miller tend to be a bit more, er, proactive than typical comic genre female characters.
"The Spirit," opening Christmas Day, features Eva Mendes as a jewel thief/ace swimmer named Sand Saref. She co-stars with Scarlett Johansson as murderous scientist Silken Floss and Paz Vega as knife-wielding belly dancer Plaster of Paris.
Based on a 1940 comic by Will Eisner, the picture is the sole directorial debut from Miller who co-directed his graphic novel adaptation of "Sin City" with Robert Rodriguez. The writer's swords-and sandals epic "300" has also been made into a hit film.
The title character (Gabriel Macht) is a masked misfit for whom death is a curable condition. He battles a fashionable nemesis called the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson).
On paper, Sand Saref could seem a type, a woman fixated with diamonds. Mendes says, however, that the character's neurotic need for shiny things is more than simple materialism.
This is the Cuban-American star's second appearance in a comic book adaptation, following her performance in "Ghost Rider" as a journalist in love with the engine-revving hero (Nicolas Cage). At 34, she has a list of credits that ranges from early roles in music videos to big parts in comedies -- "Hitch" -- and dramas -- "We Own the Night."
LIONSGATEEva Mendes in "The Spirit," opening Christmas Day.
We sat down for a chat with Mendes -- looking fab in a strapless dress -- during a "Spirit" press day at a New York hotel last weekend.
Q: Frank Miller is such an interesting visual stylist, how would you describe his technique working with the cast, helping you work on the characters?
A: He was very specific. Sometimes, when he was trying to communicate something to me about a scene, he would draw it out for me. In two seconds, he'd draw me as Sand Saref. I was like, "Can you sign that for me?"
FAST CHAT Frank Miller talks about 'The Spirit' (Newsday)
Frank Miller in London, image by juliet_a via Flickr
Frank Lovece Dec. 21, 2008
One of the few comics creators who has become his own brand, writer-artist Frank Miller first made his mark with a gritty, film-noir take on Marvel Comics' "Daredevil." He went on to pop-culture stardom with DC Comics' " The Dark Knight Returns," a 1986 miniseries envisioning a bitter, reactionary Batman a few decades from now, fighting against a corrupt world as seen through Miller's Ayn Rand-devotee eyes. His vision helped inspire the similarly dark Batman movies, and the less successful "Daredevil" film (2003).
Miller went on to such creator-owned comics as "Sin City" and "300," from independent publisher Dark Horse. Each became the basis of a popular movie, with director Robert Rodriguez granting Miller co-director credit for his help on "Frank Miller's Sin City" (2005).
Now flying solo, Miller, 51, has adapted " The Spirit," Will Eisner's legendary 1940-52 comics series that appeared as seven-page stories in Sunday newspapers. (The movie opens Thursday.) Its tales of an average-Joe-masked crime-fighter in a rumpled suit, encountering both Everyman criminals and exotic international thieves, became famous for both their humanistic fables and Eisner's pioneering techniques. Miller recently spoke at the Waldorf- Astoria with frequent contributor Frank Lovece.
For those poor, deprived souls who don't know his work, what makes Will Eisner so important to comics?
Well, it's like asking what Thomas Edison did for the lightbulb. Eisner was one of the people who created [the medium of] comic books. He was one of the first people who ever took comics out of the four-panel strip and showed the possibilities of the full page. And so he was one of the founding fathers. It's like asking what Thomas Jefferson had to do with the Constitution.
The stars of comic book film adaptation The Spirit have appeared at an abandoned warehouse.
Rather than a Leicester Square premiere, Samuel L Jackson, Eva Mendes and Scarlett Johannson graced the red carpet at the Old Post Office in central London, ahead of the film's world premiere in New York next week.
Jackson, who plays The Octopus, said his character was the villain to The Spirit's eponymous superhero. "He's kind of crazy, kind of wild, kind of genius and he wants to be the biggest criminal in the world," he said.
Johannson and Mendes both play sexy female characters. Mendes, wearing a ruffled yellow Bill Blass dress and Louis Vuitton heels, said she enjoyed baring her flesh for the film.
"It's so fun because it's not me. The minute I think it's me I wig out but it's so not me. I'm playing a character so if I drop my towel and show my bum it's not my bum."
Actress released Tom Waits cover LP in the spring.
By Jocelyn Vena, with additional reporting by Josh Horowitz
Scarlett Johansson has had quite an active year. She starred in a couple of movies, married actor Ryan Reynolds and even indulged her inner rock star by releasing an album. But don't think that Johansson is done with the music business just yet, because she has plans for a follow-up.
NY Times on Frank Miller's "The Spirit" Movie: "108 overstuffed, interminable minutes"
By A. O. SCOTT
December 25, 2008
"... I’m just trying to figure out why, somewhere in the middle of “The Spirit,”Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson arrive on screen decked out in swastikas and jackboots. Nothing in the logic of the film explains it, but then, to use the phrase “the logic of the film” when talking about “The Spirit” may be to take the “oxy” out of “oxymoronic.”
To ask why anything happens in Frank Miller’s sludgy, hyper-stylized adaptation of a fabled comic book series by Will Eisner may be an exercise in futility. The only halfway interesting question is why the thing exists at all."
Eva Mendes & Scarlett Johansson Show Their Spirit (JustJared.com)
Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes attend the launch party for their upcoming film The Spirit at London’s Old Sorting Office Thursday night.
Scarlett, 23, plays femme fatale secretary Silken Floss, while Eva, 34, portrays Sand Saref, a love interest for The Spirit himself.
Written and directed by Frank Miller, the film is adapted from a classic Will Eisner comic and also stars Gabriel Macht as The Spirit and Samuel L. Jackson as his nemesis, The Octopus.
The Spirit is scheduled for release on December 25th.
"...A goofy parody of hard-boiled detective fiction, larded with indigestible globs of expository voiceover and clunky catchphrases, the movie preemptively mocks itself at every turn, as if trying to beat the rest of us to the punch.
"This should prove dispiriting to fans of Eisner's work, if any are to be found among the film's intended audience...
"...the result is dreadful. Good comic books suggest action through abstraction, but "The Spirit" plays like an overproduced diorama. Watching it is like watching three dimensions trying to pass themselves off as two"
Tobias Schwarz/ReutersScarlett Johansson, left, and Eva Mendes, will star in Frank Miller's the Spirit.
If you can't wait to catch The Spirit. You are not alone. For those who might not know, The Spirit is the Frank Miller live-action film version of the classic 1940s Will Eisner newspaper strip and subsequent comic book series.
Opening on Dec. 25, the movie arrives with lots of anticipation and a question; as in can Miller translate the 1940s noir images onto the big screen? At least Miller gets The Spirit. He was an Eisner friend. And his resume suits the challenge. Plus his intention to shoot the movie in the fancy Sin City CGI style made sense to just about everybody.
I've been monitoring the reviews of Frank Miller's The Spirit movie -- which, thankfully, the marketing people stopped calling "Will Eisner's The Spirit" -- and there isn't much good to be found. Rather than posting separately for each bad review, I'm providing links to many of them below.
But almost everyone else uniformly gave the film raspberries. At least Miller can look forward to being a star at this year's Razzies. And you have to wonder if the owners of the rights to Buck Rogers aren't having second thoughts about letting Miller get his mitts on their property...
USA Today, Claudia Pulg "The Spirit is uneven, but its campy adventure provides some amusing, escapist fun."
Kansas City Star, Jason Heck "'The Spirit' is terrific entertainment. It’s a better and a more complete film than “Sin City” or “300.” Having a comic book genius create a comic book movie is a very, very good idea indeed."
Chicago Tribune, Web Behrens "Produced and directed by guys who grew up with a deep appreciation for Eisner, the film remains largely faithful to the quirky, well, spirit of the 60-plus-year-old creation."
Houston Chronicle, Rick Bentley "The bold visual strokes comic artist Frank Miller used to create Sin City revealed he was the only director who could do justice to the film version of Will Eisner’s ground-breaking comic series The Spirit.
"Eisner redefined comics in the 1940s and early ’50s with his creation of a print version of the film noir style. His stories were gritty. He used humor like a hidden weapon, exposed only when he needed to make a point.
"Miller has shown the same in-your-face skill in the creation of his comics and films. The result of Miller’s vision of Eisner with The Spirit is a visual explosion ignited by at times campy acting and melodrama so thick it will hurt your teeth."
Time Magazine, Richard Corliss "The joke — the prank — is on all of us. Whether you're a deep-dish Eisnerphile or an ordinary Christmas moviegoer looking for some action-adventure in a mall full of Oscar contenders, you will be obliged to proclaim this Spirit a calamitous botch. Miller has misread the original, turning dark drama into strained comedy. Of course, artists have the liberty to make fun of any source material, however hallowed; but Miller lacks the simple competence to make the movie move. The facility he has on the page doesn't translate to the screen."
Los Angeles Times, Sam Adams "'The Spirit' might bear the name of Will Eisner, on whose 1940s comics it is loosely based, but it bears as much resemblance to Eisner's inventive, lighthearted creation as "The Dark Knight" does to its candy-colored '60s television predecessor."
New York Daily News, Elizabeth Weitzman "'The Spirit' one of 'the worst movies of the year'"
Star-Ledger, Stephen Whitty "Miller has as uncertain a hand on his actors as he does on the tone."
The Oregonian, Mike Russell "'The Spirit' is a loony, embarrassing mess that takes the late Will Eisner's classic comics creation and beats it senseless with a giant toilet bowl (literally, at one point)."
Roger Ebert.com, Roger Ebert "'The Spirit' is mannered to the point of madness. There is not a trace of human emotion in it. To call the characters cardboard is to insult a useful packing material. The movie is all style -- style without substance, style whirling in a senseless void. The film's hero is an ex-cop reincarnated as an immortal enforcer; for all the personality he exhibits, we would welcome Elmer Fudd."
E! Online, Alex Markerson "The Spirit is as thin as the newsprint from which it springs."
Denton Record-Chronicle, Bob Allen "Miller makes his turgid tale devoid of color, with blood just as gray and bland as everything else in the film except for the Spirit’s tie and Scarlett Johansson’s lips."
Arizona Republic, Bill Goodykoontz "Although the acting in Sin City was campy and the story over-the-top, it worked in the context of the film. Too often The Spirit is just not very good."
The Plain Dealer, Julie E. Washington "'The Spirit' is bizarre -- and not in a good way."
St. Petersburg Times, Steve Persall "The Spirit could be retitled The Light Knight, since Frank Miller's movie is the antithesis of everything that made The Dark Knight the quintessential comic book movie."
San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Hartlaub "Miller's distinction as one of the all-time best comic book writers is strong enough to withstand his role in making one of the worst comic book movies ever."
Boston Herald, Stephen Schaefer "...nothing meshes, much less enthralls..."
Newsday, Frank Lovece "Will Eisner's "The Spirit" was the "Citizen Kane" of comics, pushing the limits of the medium and expanding its visual vocabulary. Appearing in a Sunday-paper comic-book supplement from 1940 to 1952, it starred an average-Joe masked crime-fighter in a rumpled suit - a vulnerable but insouciant Everyman in humanist fables.
"Little of that makes it on-screen in this adaptation by writer-artist turned filmmaker Frank Miller. The auteur of comics "Sin City," "300" and " Batman: The Dark Knight Returns," Miller retained only Eisner's film noir surface, jettisoning characterization, soul and anything remotely human."
Vancouver Sun, Katherine Monk "The Spirit is an ambitious mess with no life"
Toronto Star, Jason Anderson "At which exact point The Spirit hits rock bottom is a matter of debate. Maybe it's when we first see our eponymous hero scampering across rooftops in a fashion less appropriate to a movie superhero than to a cast member of Guys and Dolls.
"Or maybe it comes during the first fight sequence, when he's clobbered over the head with a bathroom fixture by a supervillain who then howls, "C'mon, toilets are always funny!" He is not correct"
"Unfortunately, Miller's first solo effort is a cinematic non-starter, with a cluttered story, paper-thin characters who seem to speak in self-mocking clichés, a bland hero, a hysterical villain and a surfeit of pouting vamps. Miller's visual technique, which was astonishing in Sin City, now feels familiar - and with a more careful PG-13 rating in the U.S., the film feels like a paler imitation of its predecessor."
"If you're expecting the dark, wicked humor and dazzlingly gruesome violence of Sin City, you'll be sorely disappointed."
New York Press, Simon Abrams "Miller is more than eager to argue for the legitimacy of comics’ pulpy roots. But he’s not doing it in the right way." Vue Weekly, Josef Braun "There are flourishes of visual expressionism, but all the eye candy, from the misty skies of fluttering snow to Eva Mendes’ immaculate ass, begins to wear as the story proves itself bereft of feeling. The characters are stereotypes. Their stories get very boring."
Now Toronto, Norman Wilner "Spiritless: Frank Miller doesn’t have the slightest clue how to put a movie together"
Examiner.com, Matthew Razak "I don't believe I have ever walked out of a theater more torn about a movie than when leaving the theater after seeing The Spirit. My movie critic selves were in complete and total conflict with each other. The camp loving, B-grade movie addict in me was saying, "You wait and see, ten years from now this is going to be one of those crazy cult classics." The professional critic in me was shouting over that about how the film is a jarring mish-mash of comic book camp, pulp fiction writing and themes that are far too dark for either. I was seriously just plain confused."
'The Spirit' Premieres: ScarJo Is A Lover, Not A Fighter (Socialite Life)
Dec. 18, 2008
Scarlett Johansson, one of the cadre of curvaceous female co-stars in Frank Miller's The Spirit chatted on the red carpetabout her real-life grappling abilities and whether or not she co-star or Eva Mendes would win in a fight against one another.
Johansson told Entertainment Tonight, "Probably Eva. I might slice her with my verbal kung fu though." Ha! She just called Eva dumb. Oh, I'm just trying to start some shit to see if we can't get these ladies to fight for real. Imagine how much money we could get for selling a tissue used to clean their bloody noses?
For every movie that makes it to the screen, there are a thousand projects that fall to the wayside. Later this month, "The Spirit," finally, hits theaters after plenty of failed attempts. Steven Paul Leiva was a key figure in one of those failed attempts and in this guest essay for Hero Complex he talks about the film that could have been. This photo below shows Leiva, Brad Bird and the late Will Eisner at the comics icon's White Plains, N.Y., home in 1981.
Frank Miller’s film version of Will Eisner’s innovative 1940s comic book, “The Spirit” opens on Christmas Day. It will be stylistic and hyper-visual, a hoped-for perfect melding of film and “sequential art,” a term coined by Eisner. What it will not be, however, is revolutionary. Comic book movies are now the meat and potatoes -- not to mention several side vegetables -- of Hollywood. And even its green screen, scene-simulation style is just part of a Miller continuum that started with “Sin City.”
But if the world had turned a little differently, if fate had been a little kinder, a “Spirit” feature film would have debuted in the 1980s that would not only have been revolutionary but -- those of us involved in it were convinced -- a huge hit, possibly the first $100 million-grossing animated feature. And the futures of such filmmakers as Brad Bird, Gary Kurtz, John Musker and John Lasseter might have taken alternative paths.
In 1980, I was a freelance publicist specializing in animators I admired. My clients included Chuck Jones, Bill Melendez and Richard Williams. However, I was not particularly happy with the state of animation itself. Previously I had been executive secretary of the animation society ASIFA-Hollywood and an animation programmer for the Los Angeles International Film Exposition (FILMEX), and so had been exposed to a lot of great, classic American animation and exciting foreign animation. I had become frustrated that animation in Hollywood had fallen into the doldrums of sub-standard Disney, awful Saturday morning TV cartoons, and too-cute-to-stomach exploitations of brightly colored bears and other sugarcoated creatures. And I had become tired of anthropomorphic animals as the dominant fauna of American animation. Not that there was anything intrinsically wrong with them, it’s just that I was a Homo sapiens chauvinist and felt that American animation as an art form would never mature (as Japanese and European animation had) until it learned to tell human stories directly, and not through the filter of talking animals.
I must say thanks to Peter at SlashFilm as he managed to find the trailer I was unable to as one critic has called The Spirit “Brilliant,” “Jaw-Dropping” and “One of the best films of the year.” I was searching all over YouTube for this thing all day after seeing it numerous times this weekend. The greatest thing is how the voice over guy refers to the person saying these things as “critics” - plural - when it turns out to be someone named Scott Hoffman from MoviePictureFilm.com. Ahhh, what a way to get your name in a trailer eh?
I can assure you that Frank Miller’s The Spirit is not brilliant, not jaw-dropping, is definitely not one of the best films of the year and when Hoffman’s quotes end by saying “It will blow you away,” I don’t think I need to tell you the truth.
Hoffman does not have a published review of the film so he must have been cornered by a Lionsgate publicist (perhaps at gun point) and asked for a pull quote, or two, or three, or four and this is the result. What a joke, I have no problem with someone liking this film, but this is adulation to the point of absurdity and I believe anyone that has also seen this film would agree with me.
Early glimpses of The Spirit seemed a little off-putting somehow and drove many fans to question the potential of Frank Miller's Will Eisner adaptation.
The first full online clips from the Christmas premiere should dispose of any doubt and allow would-be moviegoers to settle down into the grim reassurance that the flick's tag-line should've been, "My City Sucks."
NEW YORK -- The people behind The Spirit think moviegoers deserve something new and different on Christmas Day.
So what are they serving up as an antidote to the turkey and the tinsel?
Would you believe a dead man walking?
Hollywood's latest excavation from the comic-book archives resurrects a groundbreaking 1940 yarn about a murdered cop (Gabriel Macht) who is mysteriously reborn as a masked crime-fighter called The Spirit, only to meet a new nemesis in the form of a giggling psychopath known as the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson).
The film is a labour of love for contemporary graphic-novel icon Frank Miller, creator of Sin City, 300 and The Dark Knight Returns. Miller, 51, wasn't even alive when The Spirit made his first appearance 68 years ago, but he sees this new movie as an act of homage to the story's legendary creator Will Eisner, a comic-book pioneer.
SciFi put up an interesting interview today with Frank Miller, discussing The Spirit and Sin City 2. But here’s what stuck out for me:
“Will Eisner was my mentor, and The Spirit was so awesome a property that I at first thought I was not worthy to do it. And then I couldn’t think of anybody else who was, so I decided that I was the right man for the job.”
Now, I’m not quite sure how I feel about this. Frank Miller does have a reputation for making himself — we’ll say “larger than life” — when it comes to his already considerable skills as a comic book creator. (A debate might be whether his previous works, like The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil, and Sin City balance against more recent works like All-Star Batman and Robin and The Dark Knight Strikes Again.) But part of me wonders: does this sort of comment belittle Eisner? Is this Miller acting presumptuous, taking the crown of comics’ master craftsman?
If you ask nicely, resident movie mean guy Samuel L. Jackson will tick off a laundry list of comic books he loved as a kid, and sometimes, still reads.
"Superman, Batman, The Flash, Aquaman, Silver Surfer, you know, the ordinary," said the actor, who stars in the upcoming The Spirit, which premiered Wednesday night..
2008 has been an interesting year for movies, but what makes me laugh is that what may be the best and worst films of the year are comic book movies. Everyone knows what a sensation 'The Dark Knight' (and lets not forget 'Iron Man') was, earning not just the biggest box-office, but the highest praise from even critics who normally don't like the superhero genre. I think you know where I'm going with this so I'm just going to come out and say it. Frank Miller's 'The Spirit' is a piece of crap. And that's just me being nice because I'm not talking about the crap you may get on your shoe due to some fool who forgot to properly dispose of his chewing gum. I'm talking about the crap that each of us flushes every morning, 'Cept with all the advertising and TV ads we've seen for this flick over the past several months, this crap won't flush away easily.
I won't bore you with too many details or jokes because my job is to inform you on the quality of a feature, not do stand-up comedy. 'The Spirit' is a film that no matter how bad it looked or how bad I heard it was I still went into with an open mind. I wound up getting my mind blown and not in the fashion I like. This film is a complete mess from frame one and not even worth the film it was recorded on which should be burned immediately to save the participants from further embarrassment.
Director Frank Miller rewrote the Spirit script to accommodate ScarJo and let Samuel Jackson improvise — and even reinvent his character's look. We met the director and cast, and learned just how much they collaborated.
Letting Frank Miller gallop across The Spirit film set unedited opened the doors for the actors to do so as well. In a press conference for his newly released film The Spirit Miller described how one should adapt a comic to film:
As far as what translates from comics to film, I find that they are the better source material, and would cite marvel's recent Iron Man and Incredible Hulk as wonderful witty jobs at adapting them. I think if they get too presumptuous, comic book movies tend to fall apart.
That's all fine and dandy to say, Mr. Miller, but revelations throughout the conference revealed that you and your cast went a little willy nilly with changes and additions. Case in point: the lovely Scarlett Johansson's part, Silken Floss, was completely rewritten and expanded once the gorgeous ScarJo wanted in on the project. And that was only the beginning of the actors dictating changes to the movie.
Samuel L Jackson has revealed he enjoyed wearing make-up for his latest film role, in his words, "a little too much".
The actor, known for his tough guy roles, wears outlandish costumes, head gear and make-up to play villain The Octopus in The Spirit - a film adaptation of Will Eisner's comic books.
Speaking at the launch party for the film, directed by Frank Miller, Sam said: "Frank wanted the eight teardrops tattooed onto my face and the rest of it he kind of let me do, so when it came to eye colour or eye shadow or eyebrows.
Of all the Christmas Day movies this year, I'm more than a little interested in "The Spirit," the latest from comic-book-artist-turned-filmmaker Frank Miller. Once again, we'll see those digitized backgrounds and weird mixes of color and black-and-white, as in "Sin City" and "300," Miller's collaborations with Robert Rodriguez.
Mostly, though, I want to see what they do with one of my favorite comic heroes.
I discovered "The Spirit" late, in the 1970s, when a lot of the old strips were finally being reprinted for a new generation of fans. That's when a lot of us first discovered Will Eisner.
Who's Eisner? A cartoonist's cartoonist who never quite reached A-list popularity but was always known to the cognoscenti. Jack Kirby ("The Hulk, "X-Men," etc.) worked with Eisner back in the 1930s, when he was still Jacob Kurtzberg; later a young Jules Feiffer would understudy for him. Michael Chabon quoted Eisner in the epigram for his novel "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" and may have used him as a model for one of his cartoonist heroes. Hundreds of other young pop artists studied his work.
The Spirit Movie Preium Trading Cards (Inkworks.com)
Check these out: "The Spirit" trading cards created by Corbett Vanoni and distributed by Inkworks. Like 'em? You can see the entire set and order them HERE!
When 'The Spirit' arrives in theaters on December 25th, moviegoers will be invited into a world that comics-auteur turned filmmaker Frank Miller calls "modern noir." It's a Chandleresque place the evokes Hollywood's tough guys of old, but still holds the modern conveniences of the present day.
This is the cinematic realization of Will Eisner's Central City.
"I’m pretty much an encyclopedia of film noir," Miller told reporters at a recent press gathering for the film.
Actor Dan Lauria, who plays Commissioner Dolan in the film, is also a student of the genre and made it his mission to test Millers' acumen.
"I’m a thief. I mean, whenever I do anything I rob from an old actor that nobody remembers," Lauria admitted. "So, I told Frank the last play I did I was doing Richard Conte. Nobody knew who he was. So he said, 'Who are you doing in this movie?' And I said, 'Ah, you wouldn’t know him' and he said, 'No, try me out.' and I says 'Bart MacLane'.
"He listed every Bart MacLane movie. I couldn’t do one bit without him telling me what movie I’d stolen from."
"Frank actually told me you were doing Dane Clark," Gabriel Macht, who plays Denny Colt, a.k.a. The Spirt, chimes in. However, the leading man agrees that the modern noir vibe helped shape his performance.
"I think tone is really important and I think this film is a great blend of what Eisner and Frank was able to create," said Macht. "There is a bit of the Raymond Chandler gumshoe detective. I think if you are not honest in your approach to the material it could get slapsticky and it could get schticky. We didn’t go there. I think, what’s up there on the screen, what we were able to get is a little bit more extreme in the sense that it’s a comic book movie."
The NYC-inspired "Central City" is character in of-itself in comic book legend Will Eisner's seminal work The Spirit. So perhaps it was appropriate that when it was time for cast and crew to gather for a press event promoting Frank Miller's solo-directorial debut big screen adaptation of the comic book, they descended on New York City, rather than the more suburban metropolis that is Hollywood.
Question: Gabriel, this seems to be your big breakthrough, can you talk about your experience playing The Spirit? And Scarlett, how did you come into this role?
Gabriel Macht: My name is Gabriel Macht, I play El Spirito [laughs]. In many ways, any part you get as an actor has the potential for breaking through, and I feel like I’ve done a bunch of those in my career, but honestly this one happens to have the biggest potential because I’m involved with Frank’s vision of the film. There’s no greater opportunity for a younger actor than to play The Spirit, and I had the best time working on the film, so hopefully people come and see it and we can make a couple more!
Scarlett Johansson: I’m Scarlett Johansson, and I play Silken Floss...
Frank Miller: [interrupts] Doesn’t she make that sound great? [laughter from the audience]
I’ve been saying for quite a while that I think the new Frank Miller film “The Spirit” looks just ass awful. Well… in the last two days I’ve had a chance to talk to 2 people who saw it recently. What did they both think?
Well, I think the phrase “disgustingly awful” came up a couple of times with the one person I talked too.
But the other person I talked to didn’t say much about it. They just said 4 words… it wasn’t even a complete sentence. All they said was this:
JOHN: “So how was it?” FRIEND: “NOT SINCE BATTLEFIELD EARTH…” JOHN: “Wow”
That is a powerful, non complete sentence phrase right there. Not since Battlefield Earth…
That right there is a phrase you never want associated with your movie.
Image by Strandell via FlickrHere's an excerpt from today's Variety review of "The Spirit" movie by Justin Chang. Let's keep reminding ourselves that this is Frank Miller's Spirit, not Will Eisner's. Any similarity is clearly coincidental, as we all feared:
There's a lot going on here, but none of it sticks -- not theshopworn plotting nor the arch, stilted dialogue. The actors often seemto be delivering their lines in ironic quote marks, suggesting astraight-faced sendup of noir and comicbook conventions that, whateverthe intended effect, falls mostly flat.
The Spirit himselfdoesn't supply much of a rooting interest; Macht's role is colorless inmore ways than one, and we see more of the actor's nicely sculptedtorso than his face (most bigscreen heroes have the decency to take offtheir masks once in a while). Mendes and Lauria come off better,injecting their perfs with sizzle and bite, respectively.
And if you're still not convinced it's bad, over at Ain't It Cool News, their reviewer says "The Spirit" movie "replaced Battlefield Earth as the worst movie" he's ever seen.
The Spirit's Gabriel Macht isn't a comic-book hero; he just plays one in the movies.
In fact, Macht--who stars as Denny Colt/The Spirit, the dead rookie cop turn masked crimefighter, in Frank Miller's upcoming big-screen adaptation of the Will Eisner comic book--was entirely unfamiliar with the story, its history or Eisner when the film came up.
In an exclusive interview with SCI FI Wire, Macht revealed that his agents introduced him to the material, that Miller didn't want him to rely too much on the book The Best of The Spirit and that dealing with green screens didn't leave him the slightest bit blue. Following are edited excerpts of the interview with Macht; look for part two of this Q&A on Monday.
Did you know thing one about The Spirit before this project arrived on your doorstep?
Macht: No. I was told about the film from my agents. They said, "Frank Miller is doing a comic-book film from an adaptation of an insert in the newspapers from the '40s called Will Eisner's The Spirit." So I read the sides [script pages], and I jumped online and on Wikipedia and I looked up Will Eisner's The Spirit. And I found the old version of it. And then I saw Frank Miller's drawing. I think it was first presented at Comic-Con in 2007, and it was a very violent-looking, tough-guy Spirit. When I went into the audition I said to Frank, "I saw the poster that you drew, and I thought, 'I look like that guy. Why not come in?'" The guy looks nothing like me! Frank's drawing looks nothing like me. But I was not familiar with the comic. I was not familiar with Will Eisner, but as soon as I did my research I found that he is a legend in the world of comic books and graphic novels, and I think it was he who invented the term "graphic novel." He was one of the great innovators of the genre.
How much did Frank Miller want you to immerse yourself in the Eisner universe? Or did he ask you to go by his script?
Macht: When I finally got the job, there was some time between sitting down with Frank and traveling to Albuquerque to shoot on the soundstages out there. In that time I went out and bought The Best of the Spirit, which has the color versions of the old comics. When I came to visit with Frank, he said, "So, what have you done?" And I said, "Well, I've immersed myself in The Best of ... " He goes, "No, no, no, no. I'm not a fan of the coloring that they did for those comics. Let me give you my picks." So he gave me a massive binder of his favorite Will Eisner work, but all in black and white. He did absolutely want me to familiarize myself with Will Eisner's vision of Central City, of Denny, of the femme fatales. I looked pages and pages, and when I got to set on my first day, I ended up taking all of the comics, and I had a bunch of Frank's storyboards of the film, and I pasted them all over my trailer. You couldn't see one piece of fake wood in my trailer. It was all Will Eisner and Frank Miller drawings. So I really tried to absorb as much as I could from Eisner's take to influence the work that we created together, Frank and I.
1. Gabriel Macht. He is so cute. Plus, after years of solid yeoman’s work in such flicks as American Outlaws and The Recruit and The Good Shepherd, he’s due his moment in the spotlight. He at least deserves this chance at a franchise. Also: the red tie is fantabulous.
2. Frank Miller. I know, I know: I’m a girl, and so I’m not supposed to like shit like 300 and Sin City. But I do. Deal with it.
3. Will Eisner. The man literally wrote thebook on comics.
4. Samuel L. Jackson. He’s basically the coolest, baddest dude ever. And he’s so nice!
5. Nothing says “holiday cheer” like mean streets, an undead vigilante who snarls out greetings including “I'm gonna kill you all kinds of dead,” and a URL such as “MyCityScreams.com.” Merry fuckin’ multiplex Christmas!
Gabriel Macht has been active in film, theater, and television for most of the last decade, starting with a role on the original Beverly Hills 90210. He has since been seen in such films as Behind Enemy Lines, The Recruit, A Love Song for Bobby Long, and The Good Shepherd. It took Frank Miller to give him a starring part, however: he's slated to appear as resurrected cop Denny Colt in Will Eisner'sThe Spirit, due for release Christmas Day. In an exclusive interview with Mania.com, Macht talked about stepping into the character's shoes, as well as working with Miller and meeting the expectations of a new generation of comic book films.
Question: How did you get involved with the project? Were you a big comics fan going in?
Gabriel Macht: I wasn't a crazy comic book fan, but I was a big fan of comic book movies. My agent sent me into this audition without saying much about it. It was only when I got in there that I found out it was for Frank Miller. My interest level jumped up by about a factor of 10. I had loved the Sin City movie and the 300 movie both, and suddenly here's the guy who created them introducing himself to me. I think every actor wants to work for someone with a vision, and Frank's is one of the strongest I've ever seen. I jumped on the Will Eisner stuff once I got the part, but in the early stages, what we had were Frank's storyboards for the film. And they were so clear and so beautiful and gave such a tremendous impression of where he wanted to go with this movie. We established a great chemistry right away--almost as soon as I read for it--and while the auditioning process was fairly long, I would get more and more excited about it with each step I took.
Image via Wikipedia
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