The Spirit: Miller Takes on Eisner
First, the not-so-good news: Frank Miller, co-director of Sin City (2005) and co-writer of 300 (2006) is in the director’s chair for a film adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit, due for release in January, 2009. Now, the good news: Frank Miller, author of the classic Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, is in the director’s chair for a film adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit, due for release in January, 2009.
The film likely has an enormous budget; Miller’s other properties have, thus far, been a good ROI, and I’m sure that the people producing this one expect no different. The cast includes the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Paz Vega and Dan Lauria, with Gabriel Macht in the title role. If the film falls flat, it won’t be for lack of money or star power.
It’s more Miller’s recent history that’s reason for pause. Both Sin City and 300 were based on Miller’s graphic novels. The film versions of each ended up being the cinematic equivalent of Faberge eggs, practically as empty of content as they were visually dazzling. Of course, Miller is not entirely to blame for this, since any film goes through countless rewrites and edits, as well as being subject to the whims of the director. That could go some way toward explaining why Sin City especially lost much of its impact, not to mention any sense of purpose; rather than focusing on telling a single story well, the choice was inexplicably made to tell three different stories, a la Short Cuts or Mystery Train (just not as well). My understanding, though, is that Miller had substantial creative input, and therefore shares at least some of the blame for how both films turned out.
On the other hand, as previously mentioned, Miller was also responsible for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which—while as stylized as Sin City and 300—was as realized in terms of its plot and characterization as it was visually innovative, putting him in good company with the likes of Neil Gaiman, Allan Moore and Will Eisner.
Eisner’s influence on Frank Miller is pretty well-documented, as is Miller’s deep respect for his mentor. It’s no accident that the Eisner estate signed off on Miller bringing The Spirit to the big screen. I can’t help but think that Miller is likely to be a bit more careful with this project than some of his other, more recent, work.
But not too careful. After all, if the graphic novel that made his name proved anything, it’s that when he had a mind to, Miller could subvert a story as the “faithful” knew it in ways that, paradoxically, could bring it closer to the spirit of the original. Hopefully the end result is something true to the, well, spirit of the original, rather than ending up leaving fans of both Miller and Eisner wishing that we’d read the books instead.
Will Eisner’s Official Site
IMDb entry on The Spirit
And finally, the film’s official site
Tags: Frank Miller, graphic novels, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Will Eisner