Nope, 'The Spirit' movie doesn't work in Zaire, either (Post Online)

All-star cast cannot save story
2009/09/04

BASED on the graphic novel by Will Eisner, this film is a prime example of the film makers spending too much on the visual effects and the cast’s salaries, and not paying enough attention to telling a decent story.

Given that it is directed by Frank Miller, the man behind Sin City and 300, you will know what to expect visually – although real actors are used, it has the feel of reading a graphic novel, complete with all the comic book violence.

Told in film noir style, it focuses on the rivalry between The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) and The Octopus (Samuel L Jackson), two immortals with super powers who regularly beat each other senseless, even if they are unable to kill each other. There’s also a sub-plot involving The Spirit’s childhood sweetheart Sand Seref (Eva Mendes) who has now turned evil and is seeking to get her hands on the Golden Fleece from ancient mythology.

At the same time The Octopus is trying to get the blood of Hercules. Don’t ask why, it doesn’t make much sense.

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Live Blog -THE SPIRIT (Movie)

By Jay Stringer

August 22, 2009

You know the drill. I’m watching a film, and commenting on it as i go.

My spelling will get bad. My grammar will be non existent. But who needs those things, anyway?

I like to do introductions before a live blog. A little context to my history with the character or property. But to be truthful, in this instance its more the creator that i’ve had a long term connection to. Sure, if you’re into noir, hardboiled fiction and comics, you have to love Will Eisner. The man was a visionary, a genius, and a pioneer of the medium. His work with THE SPIRIT still stands as some of the best work done in the funny books, racist wharts and all. BUT for any person of my generation, the name FRANK MILLER carried weight long before WILL EISNER.

I’ve written before of my fragile six year old mind being warped by mr Miller. I’ve never been a fan of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, but his BATMAN: YEAR ONE and DAREDEVIL :BORN AGAIN are as good as it gets. I spent a long time arguing that hollywood needed a dose of Miller. Then it got one and……ahem. I know the exact moment i started to lose faith in him. Is was with oe single comic book, BATMAN VS SPAWN. It was bad. And i don’t just mean bad, i mean this thing was almost enough to drive me away from comics. Anywhoo….on with the show.

ROLL CREDITS!!!!

-Hey, it’s a left over Danny Elfman score. Or if it isn’t, it should be.

-Oh no. Scrap that. It was a false alarm. Straight into a flatline on the screen with some creepy music.

-Hey, word to the wise? Anyone who introduces themselves with the words “i am death”, is probably not Death. Especially if she’s in her underwear.

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Sucking "The Spirit" Out of Will Eisner's Vision (The Stute)

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

My city screams...for better plot development

Matt Neuteboom

3/20/09

Did you manage to catch a viewing of "Watchmen" while on Spring Break? If you're a Stevens student, that should be an automatic "yes." While I would love to sit down and dissect the ups and downs of that brilliant movie, this week it is my unfortunate privilege to review a different comic book movie: "The Spirit."

I wish "The Spirit" was half as awesome as Watchmen, but the two simply cannot be compared. "The Spirit" is Frank Miller's creative reinterpretation of Will Eisner's post-WWII comic about an ex-detective named Danny Colt who returns from the dead as the superhero The Spirit (Gabriel Macht). The Spirit seems to be some sort of weird Batman spin-off, except for the fact that he walks around in broad daylight and his closest friend is a cat.

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On Christmas Day, Vermonter's 'Spirit' comes to life (TimesArgus.com)

The Spirit image by TCM Hitchhiker via Flickr

By Daniel Barlow

Vermont Press Bureau

December 24, 2008

MONTPELIER – During a recent interview to promote his film adaptation of Will Eisner's "The Spirit" comic strip, Frank Miller remembered first discovering reprints of the cartoonist's work in a small drugstore in Barre.

"I was 14 years old, driving my bicycle in Vermont, and I would go to two drug stores to buy all my comic books," Miller told the Film Journal International earlier this month. "And at the second drug store in Barre, Vt., I came across this oversized magazine that was in black-and-white and I was entranced."

That comic was a 1970s reprint of Eisner's work decades earlier on "The Spirit," which ran for 12 years as a supplement to newspapers' Sunday comics section. Miller quickly devoured Eisner's work – forever influencing his own artistic direction.

More than 30 years later, Miller, who grew up in the Barre area and attended high school in Montpelier, brings his own version of "The Spirit" to the big screen on Christmas Day. The film stars Gabriel Macht as Denny Colt, a police officer who fights crime as the masked, noirish Spirit.

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'The Spirit' employs Crestline, Ohio, company's special effects (Cleveland.com)

by Julie E. Washington/Plain Dealer Reporter

Tuesday December 30, 2008, 3:24 PM

Lionsgate Films"The Spirit," in theaters now, uses special effects from a Crestline, Ohio, company, Precinct 13.

CRESTLINE -- Superman's got his cape, Batman rocks a cowl and the Spirit protects his secret identity with a mask. "The Spirit" director Frank Miller turned to an Ohio special-effects company, Precinct 13, to design the trademark mask for his film adaptation of the Will Eisner comic.

"Frank had very specific ideas about what he wanted," said makeup-effects supervisor Al Tuskes, who lives in Lakewood. The mask had to hold its shape and mold exactly to actor Gabriel Macht's face, and it had to look like something that the Spirit made himself.

Working from a life mask of Macht's face, Precinct 13 sculptor Gino Crognale designed the mask, and Tuskes replicated 80 masks by hand out of sculpted foam.

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Behind the 'Spirit' mask, a substantial career for actor Gabriel Macht (New York Daily News)

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

BY ETHAN SACKS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

December 19th 2008, 4:00 AM

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."

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Scarlett Johansson and company get The Spirit (National Post)

Scarlett Johansson image via Wikipedia

By Bob Thompson

National Post

December 13, 2008

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.

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Comic-book fans bring out 'Spirit' (USA Today)

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

By Kelley L. Carter
USA TODAY
Dec. 18, 2008

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..

Opening Christmas Day, it stars Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson, Scarlett Johansson and Gabriel Macht. Jackson plays his nemesis, The Octopus.

"It's pure boy stuff," Jackson said of comic-based films. "Guys like to chase each other and hit each other over the head."

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The Modern Noir of THE SPIRIT (Mania.com)

By Rob M. Worley
December 18, 2008

When 'The Spirit' arrives in theaters on December 25^th, 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."

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Lead on, Spirit! (The Unique Geek)

By RavenFace

December 18, 2008

Let’s get it out of the way. The Spirit, in wide release Dec. 25th, is not a straight-forward adaptation of the Will Eisner comic strip. That always seems to be the “concern” of the comic fan, and it rings hollow, a standard applied to justify having read the source material. In essence, by asking if something is “faithful” to the source, they are saying, “I’ve read this, and I want credit for it. I did Prague before they built the McDonalds. I was into The Strokes back when they played in my friend’s loft.” Get over yourself, Spirit “fan,” a movie needs to be judged on its own merits. The majority of people who see it have never heard of the character, don’t want to hear you talk about it and don’t want fries with that.

So, what will they find, this fresh new audience? After the previews (through which many will have fingers crossed for a glimpse of Terminator Salvation), they will be met with a disembodied voice over and a floating woman’s unseen face, all stabby light and murky moan, calling for the soul of the Spirit. It’s disorienting, but hope remains. We’ve just started, and maybe the light will clear up and we’ll see her. She might be hot! Then some credits and some atmosphere, and then Eva Mendes rising from the water, and it’s unclear whether or not she has super powers or maybe she’s the same woman from the pre-credit sequence, and then The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) is talking about eggs and throwing a toilet at The Spirit (Gabriel Macht), and people are killed but don’t die and you realize it’s a cartoon. You’ve unwittingly paid to see an homage to Merrie Melodies.

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Johansson und Mendes stellen neuen Film vor (Welt Online)

Großansicht

Berlin (dpa/bb) - Zur Abwechslung mal ganz brav: Adrett und hochgeschlossen zeigten sich am Montag die US-Schauspielerinnen Scarlett Johansson (24) und Eva Mendes (34) bei der Vorstellung ihres neuen Films in Berlin. Dabei spielen die beiden Frauen in der Comic- Verfilmung «The Spirit» des amerikanischen Zeichners Will Eisner sehr erotische Rollen. Der Streifen von Regisseur Frank Miller («Sin City») erzählt die Geschichte eines jungen Polizisten (Gabriel Macht), der auf mysteriöse Weise vom Tod ins Leben zurückkehrt, um als «Spirit» (Geist) das Verbrechen in seiner Stadt Central City zu bekämpfen. Filmstart ist am 29. Januar.

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Frank Miller & Cast Get into Spirit of 'The Spirit' (Newsarama.com)

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeBy Lucas Siegel
17 December 2008

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.

Present at the weekend press conference was Miller, along with star Gabriel Macht [The Spirit], Eva Mendes [Sand Saref], Scarlett Johansson [Silken Floss], Samuel L. Jackson [The Octopus], Dan Lauria, [Commissioner Dolan], and Sarah Paulson [Ellen Dolan]. The stars took their seats, and the questions began.

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]

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'The Spirit' App Debuts on iPhone (Brandweek)

Dec 18, 2008

-By Becky Ebenkamp

To get into The Spirit of the film's Christmas Day release, studio Lionsgate and digital media company Big Stage Entertainment developed a mobile app that lets consumers swap the movie's stars Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes and others in scenes with their own 3-D images on iPhones, iPods and PCs.

The Spirit iPhone application, which is available for free at Apple's App Store and at MyCityScreams.com, was designed to appeal to the tech savvy fans of the cult graphic artist/film director, Frank Miller (300, Sin City). Those with the iPhone, can click on their picture, upload it to create a 3-D clone or "@ctor" and then shake the phone to get into scenes and still images. There are six animated scenes and 20 images to choose from.

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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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Q&A: The Spirit's Macht (SciFi.com)

Cover via AmazonDecember 12, 2008

Q&A: The Spirit's Macht

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.

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