Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Frank Miller gets in 'The Spirit' (Jam! Showbiz)

Cartoonist Will Eisnerat the Inkpt Awards cere...Image via Wikipedia
Comic-book icon channels The Spirit of his mentor in latest film
By -- Sun Media

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).

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Thursday, January 01, 2009

Uslan and DeSanto Catch the Spirit (PW.com)

DC ComicsImage via Wikipedia

By Douglas Wolk

Publishers Weekly

12/15/2008

From February through April, DC's The Spirit series will have a guest writing team: Michael Uslan and F.J. DeSanto, the producers of the Frank Miller-directed Spirit movie that's opening this month. Uslan hasn't written many comics since he became the producer of the Batman movies (aside from the Batman graphic novel Detective No. 27 a few years ago), but he wrote stories for The Shadow, Beowulf, Detective Comics and other series back in the early '70s, when, as he put it at a recent interview in New York, "I was a Junior Woodchuck at DC Comics. They didn't have the term 'intern' then, but it was me and that skinny kid—what was his name?—Paul... Levitz! Levitz! I don't know what happened to him, but he was a Woodchuck too."

The difficulty with creating new Spirit comics, DeSanto noted, is that the character is so closely identified with Eisner: "It's not like Batman, where you have 70 years of Batman stories by so many different creators that you can do The Dark Knight or you can do the Brave and the Bold cartoon—it's Eisner, and that's it." So, before they started writing, he and Uslan made a list of elements of Eisner's work they had to incorporate into every Spirit story.

"They had to have cinematic storytelling, influenced heavily by Hitchcock," Uslan said. "In terms of the heart of the story, they had to be influenced by Frank Capra. There had to be humanity in these stories. They had to be character-driven. Eisner's humor had to be there. Eisner's violence quotient had to be there. Eisner's over-the-top villains had to be there, and Eisner's femme fatales"—the three issues Uslan and DeSanto have written are built around Plaster of Paris, Silken Floss and Lorelei, all of whom also appear in the movie, and they're connected by a plot involving Eisner's foremost villain, the Octopus. Drawn by the former Shadowpact team of Justiniano and Walden Wong, they're full of other little nods to Eisner's work; the first page of their first issue echoes the first page of the classic Spirit story "Ten Minutes."

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Sunday, December 28, 2008

"The Spirit" inspires us to talk femme fatales (AfterEllen.com)

Christmas day is just around the corner, and you know what that means: ribbons, tags, packages, boxes, bags — and the release of half a dozen much-hyped, mega-budget films. Among them is the movie adaptation of Will Eisner's The Spirit. It doesn't have any Nazis, puppies or backward-aging babies, but it promises killer performances from a bevy of women who want nothing more than seduction and destruction.

Scarlett Johansson plays Silken Floss, a frigid vixen; Eva Mendes plays Sand Saref, a conniving jewel thief; and Jaime King plays Lorelei, a phantom siren.

Of course, no superhero's tale would be complete without the quick-witted girl next door. To balance out Spirit's femme fatales is the police commissioner's daughter, Ellen Dolan, played by out actress Sarah Paulson.

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Thursday, December 25, 2008

Eva Mendes & Scarlett Johansson Show Their Spirit (JustJared.com)

Eva Mendes & Scarlett Johansson Show Their Spirit

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.

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Samuel L. Jackson Did His Own Makeup In The Spirit (io9.com)

By Meredith Woerner

Dec 17 2008

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.

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TV Stars * TV Producers * Movie Stars * Movie Directors, Producers, documentary Filmmakers and Screenwriters * Politicians and Political Writers * Stand-Up Comedians * Health Experts * Magazine Editors * Radio Stars * Bloggers, Podcasters and Web Producers * Novelists * Musicians and Music Journalists * Sexuality Experts * Culture and Society Experts * Food Experts * Biographers, Historians and A.J. Jacobs * Athletes and Sports Experts * Photographers * Journalists * Crime Experts * CEOs and Business Experts * Comic Book Creators * Cartoonists * Will Eisner Co-Workers, Friends and Experts

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Friday, December 05, 2008

Unplugged: Scarlett surprises (xpress4me.com)

{{es|Scarlett Johansson en la Rambla de Barcel...Image via Wikipedia

Can you talk about working with (Sin City creator) Frank Miller on your new movie The Spirit? What made you want to do the movie?

I’ve never really been someone who knows anything about graphic novels or comics. It’s not that I’m not a fan, but I’ve just never been exposed to that whole world. I loved Sin City, I loved 300 and I loved the kind of mystery of Frank Miller. I was interested to meet him. I heard that he was doing this project and that there were some fun female roles. I had heard of the graphic novel for The Spirit. I knew of it and I wanted to find out more.

So you pursued the role?

Yeah. Well, Frank and I kind of pursued each other. I heard about it and he kind of came at me. Both of us were interested in meeting the other person and we had lunch. We just caught on like a house on fire. It was like, ‘I love you. You’re fantastic.’ We just got along so well.

Who do you play in the movie?

I play a character named Silken Floss. When I read the script there wasn’t really a part for me. But when I met with Frank, he was like, ‘I don’t know where you fit in, but I want to work with you.’ We both felt that way, so he wrote the part for me which was fun, because I had no idea what it was going to be or anything. I knew that he was kind of writing it for me. It was great. So you’ll just have to wait and see.

What was it like working with Frank?

I loved working with him. He’s wonderful, he’s such a visionary, just fantastic. He would come on the sets and lead the whole crew into some kind of presentation. He would draw the storyboard and lead us. I mean he sees it, he can see how he wants it. He’s a visionary, he really is, and it was exciting. He creates these fantastic characters and some of them are just so rotten. None of his characters are grey. None of us are heroes, they’re all kind of grey, you know? And I love that.

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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Get to Know the Women of 'The Spirit' in New Featurette

{{es|Scarlett Johansson en la Rambla de Barcel...Image via WikipediaLionsgate Films have just come out with a new featurette for their forthcoming comic adaptation, "The Spirit". Focusing on each of the beautiful women in the life of the superhero, the featurette is hosted by director Frank Miller as he introduces the ladies, Sand Saref, Silken Floss, Lorelei, Plaster of Paris, Morgenstern and Dr. Ellen Dolan.

Apart from character description by Miller, the nearly three minutes video exhibits commentary from the actresses who play the characters in the film as well as fresh footage from the film. Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, Jaime King, Paz Vega, Stana Katic and Sarah Paulson all take turn to talk about their individual characters, exposing what makes each character unique.

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Monday, September 15, 2008

Scarlett Johansson's next roles: lover, nurse, real-life bride (Chicago Sun-Times)

August 11, 2008

"I loved ‘Sin City,’ I loved ‘300,’ and I loved the kind of mystery of [director] Frank Miller. I was interested to meet him. I heard that he was doing this project, and that there were some fun female roles. I had heard of the graphic novel for ‘The Spirit.’ I knew of it, and I wanted to find out more. So I met Frank. …

"We just caught on like a house afire. It was like, ‘I love you. You’re fantastic.’ We just got along so well, and we both shared our love for the city and all of the different parts of it. Frank highlights all of those sort of dark shadowy corners. That’s what he wants. He loves that aspect of the story.”

In the film, Johansson plays a character named Silken Floss. "She’s this nurse. On the gray spectrum, she’s actually the lighter side of gray," she says. "It’s a kind of an undeveloped role, so I think that was exciting for Frank, too, that he could develop the character and develop her story. So you’ll just have to wait and see.”

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Sunday, September 07, 2008

Scarlett Johansson's next roles: lover, nurse, real-life bride (Chicago Sun-Times)

August 11, 2008

"I loved ‘Sin City,’ I loved ‘300,’ and I loved the kind of mystery of [director] Frank Miller. I was interested to meet him. I heard that he was doing this project, and that there were some fun female roles. I had heard of the graphic novel for ‘The Spirit.’ I knew of it, and I wanted to find out more. So I met Frank. …

"We just caught on like a house afire. It was like, ‘I love you. You’re fantastic.’ We just got along so well, and we both shared our love for the city and all of the different parts of it. Frank highlights all of those sort of dark shadowy corners. That’s what he wants. He loves that aspect of the story.”

In the film, Johansson plays a character named Silken Floss. "She’s this nurse. On the gray spectrum, she’s actually the lighter side of gray," she says. "It’s a kind of an undeveloped role, so I think that was exciting for Frank, too, that he could develop the character and develop her story. So you’ll just have to wait and see.”

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Monday, June 16, 2008

New Scarlett Johansson Poster! (SuperheroHype.com)

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Friday, August 17, 2007

MAJOR FANBOY ALERT: Scarlett Johansson Cast in Will Eisner's The Spirit

It's a triple feature for Johansson

By Borys Kit and Tatiana Siegel
hr/photos/stylus/8718.jpg

Scarlett Johansson (Getty Images photo)

Scarlett Johansson has lined up a series of roles that will see her moving quickly from modern relationships to comic strip noir to costume drama.

Johansson has joined the all-star cast of New Line Cinema's ensemble comedy "He's Just Not That Into You," which she will shoot first before then materializing as a femme fatale in "Will Eisner's The Spirit," being directed by Frank Miller for Odd Lot Entertainment and Lionsgate.

In the winter, she will don a crown for "Mary Queen of Scots," to which she's has been attached to some time. Johansson becomes the latest actor to book back-to-back-to-back roles in anticipation of a possible strike.

In "Into You," Johansson will play a pilates instructor/aspiring singer who has an affair with a married man and hopes that he will leave his wife for her.

She joins the already cast Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Bradley Cooper, Kevin Connolly, Justin Long, Ginnifer Goodwin and Drew Barrymore in the movie of interconnecting story arcs dealing with the challenges of reading or misreading human behavior.

Ken Kwapis is directing the movie, which Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen are producing via their Flower Films banner. Production executives Michele Weiss and Michael Disco are overseeing for New Line.

For "Spirit," Miller's adaptation of the classic Eisner film noir comic strip series, Johansson is in final negotiations to play a dangerous beauty named Silken Floss. Eisner's strip was known for its women with dangerous curves, and Miller is intent on keeping that tradition. Floss is a sexy and intelligent secretary with a vindictive instinct that makes her the perfect accomplice to the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), an evil mastermind.

Gabriel Macht is playing the title character, a detective who fakes his own death in order to fight crime in Central City as the masked man known as the Spirit. Production is scheduled to start in October, with the film scheduled to be released in 2009.

Odd Lot Entertainment and Lionsgate are production partners on "Spirit," with Lionsgate holding domestic and U.K. rights. Deborah Del Prete and Gigi Pritzker will produce along with Michael Uslan of Batfilm Productions Inc. Batfilm co-founder Benjamin Melniker and Steve Maier are executive producers. Odd Lot's Linda McDonough and Batfilm's F.J. DeSanto serve as co-producers.

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