Frank Miller is directing a film adaption of Will Eisner’s newspaper comic hero The Spirit. The producer of the film told a crowd of comic buffs at the New York Comic Con that the adaption will not be as light and cheerful as the strip itself usually was. In an e-mail, the absent Miller (he had hurt himself falling on some ice) wrote, “Don’t go expecting a nostalgic tongue-in-cheek romp here…. Get set, we’re on our way to some dark places.”
On the one hand, assuming Miller follows in the step of the Sin City movie he co-directed, and makes The Spirit movie look just like Will Eisner’s classic and brilliantly illustrated comic strip, that would be amazingly cool.
On the other, the reason The Spirit has remained such a classic is that Eisner was a master of tone. He created a quirky and amazingly compelling run of eight page stories, with unique tones that will be difficult to duplicate. Miller obviously writes dark material for his own comics, and so it’s natural he’d gravitate in that direction. However, I somehow doubt that his Spirit will be anything much like Eisner’s. Still, it’d be nice.
They’re punting on the Spirit’s sidekick Ebony, predictably, who won’t be in the movie. That’s probably best. Ebony was definitely drawn in an exaggerated ‘negro’ fashion consistent with the times the strip was made. He was a great character, but a lot of people just can’t get past those aspects. Frankly, if they did include Ebony, they’d ‘update’ him within an inch of his life (and thus make him a 2000’s century stereotype rather than a 1940’s one).
Supposedly Miller also sent word that he and Robert Rodriguez might well be filming a Sin City sequel as early as spring of this year.
Warner Brothers (owner of DC comics and thus all their characters) is mulling a live-action Justice League movie, the group that includes all of DC’s most popular characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, etc. Even with the rights all cleared, this would be a logistical nightmare. Fans would probably want the actors currently playing the characters in separate series—Christian Bale as Batman, Whoever that Guy is as Superman—and who knows if that is possible.
On the other hand, it would (potentially) be a nerd’s dream come true, and moreover could help Marvel do that Avengers movie they occasionally talk about. That would be even trickier, since different studios own the rights to different essential characters (Thor, Iron Man, Captain American, maybe the Hulk).
And again, there is the issue of rounding up the actors. Would Robert Downey Jr. be available to play Tony Stark in an Avengers movie as well as the projected trilogy of Iron Man movies? Would they get the guy playing Bruce Banner in next summer’s The Incredible Hulk to be in this? And how would this effect plans to make separate Thor and Captain America movies, and so on. Still…wow. My mind is officially blown. I love no comic like The Avengers, and I would dearly love to see something like this.
J.J. Abrahms, officially divorced from Warner’s Wonder Woman movie, apparently is in to direct the upcoming Star Trek prequel movie, which will revolve around Kirk and Spock and the gang at Star Fleet Academy.
