After getting co-director credit with Robert Rodriguez on SIN CITY, Frank Miller is taking on his first solo helming effort. Odd Lot Entertainment and Batfilm Prods. have tapped the talented comicbook artist to bring another legend, Will Eisner’s THE SPIRIT, to the big screen.
The central concept of the series, which debuted in 1940, tells the story of a masked detective who is believed to be dead. Using a mausoleum as his home base, [the] character fights crime in the dark shadows of Central City, using cunning and ingenious forms of punishment.
The project’s development path has been difficult with a lead character that has no superpowers (though he was put in suspended animation), and whose costume is simply a suit and tie with a small mask.
Of course the history of noir-ish comic superheroes on the big screen, which pretty much consists of THE SHADOW, has not been stellar. But I’ll let Miller have the final word on this news, because he’ll most likely make you a believer:
“When (Uslan) invited me to do this, first I said I can’t do this and then I said I can’t let anybody else touch it,” said Miller, who became friends with Eisner before the latter’s death. “I intend to be extremely faithful to the heart and soul of the material, but it won’t be nostalgic. It will be much scarier than people expect.”
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