Miller addresses The Spirit’s suit, and those comparisons to Sin City
We’ve all seen Frank Miller’s upcoming adaptation of The Spirit compared, unflatteringly, to Sin City, right? Well, so has Frank Miller.
And in the latest entry for the movie’s production blog, he addresses concerns about the look and feel of the production — “The Spirit is, and will always be, Eisner’s Spirit” — and, yes, the disappearance of The Spirit’s trademark blue suit.
After a brief overview of the comic-book printing limitations that traditionally meant everything intended to be black had to appear as blue, Miller gets down to brass tacks.
“In tests — and we did several — the blue made the Spirit look like an unfortunate guest at a Halloween party,” he writes. “Going to black brings back his essential mystery, his Zorro-like sexiness. It also makes that red tie of his look very, very cool. So I made the call, with all respect to Eisner’s creation, and most importantly, to what I perceived as his underlying intention. It was an easy call for me to make. The Spirit dresses in black, and looks much the better for it. As I said, my desire was never to slavishly follow the rules of ’40s printing into campy oblivion, but to reintroduce Eisner’s creation, via modern technology, to our brave new world.”
He also notes that, despite the impression given by the movie’s teaser trailer, The Spirit is in full color.
The Spirit opens on Christmas.
The Ticker
• Dominic Wells sums up the big-screen rivalry between DC and Marvel: “Where DC is Coke, Marvel is Pepsi; where DC is Hillary Clinton, Marvel is Barack Obama; where DC is McDonald’s, Microsoft and the Beatles, Marvel is Burger King, Apple and the Rolling Stones.” [Times Online]
• What can audiences expect from The Incredible Hulk? Apparently “the other 99 percent” of the mythos Ang Lee didn’t explore in the first film — including “Hulk smash!” as voiced by Lou Ferrigno. [Variety]
• Lionsgate has released another still from Punisher: War Zone, and it looks pretty much like all the other images. [IESB]
• Warner Bros. Animation’s pre-packaged interviews for Batman: Gotham Knight don’t interest me that much, but this latest one, with DC’s Gregory Noveck, includes a handful of beautiful shots of Gotham City from the direct-to-DVD feature. [Comics Continuum]
• Universal has released a new international poster for Hellboy II: The Golden Army. It’s … well … Hm. [Empire Online]
• I haven’t read any of the Twlight YA novels, but I’m fascinated by the upcoming film adaptation, and the excitement it’s whipped up among fans. Of course, I’ve also become addicted to Gossip Girl, and Twlight seems like the same thing, but with fangs. Anyway … the first clip from Twilight airs Sunday during the MTV Movie Awards. [MTV Movies Blog]
May 31st, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Marvel is a polished turd is what it is.
May 31st, 2008 at 3:30 pm
So there’s only one kind of blue out there?
Not a very good excuse. You can always choose darker blues.
Likewise THE SPIRITE logo is as much a staple of the character as anything, and yet this too has been sideswiped.
I’m sure Miller has the best intentions in mind, it’s just that we’re not seeing it, nor have we seen it from the very start.
=s=
May 31st, 2008 at 3:34 pm
As has become apparent and has been confirmed here, they are just selling The Spirit on the back of Sin City. Horrible, horrible idea. It’ll bump the initial weekend sales but people are going to walk into this movie thinking it’s one thing and get another. Could be a fair amount of backlash in reviews and following ticket sales when people get what they perceive as a watered down Sin City. And why? 300 was promoted on Miller’s name but allowed to carry its own distinctive style, so why can’t the most respected property in comics so the same?
May 31st, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I disagree with the Marvel vs. DC comparisons above. If you were talking about a different time period, maybe, but now? Marvel controls the market share. Marvel’s got a killer film division. Marvel has a Spider-Man animated series and an X-Men animated series about to debut. Marvel’s got several top-selling videogame franchises.
DC is competitive in the comics department. Aside from Batman, they have trouble adapting their characters to film. You could give them the nod for V for Vendetta, The Spirit and Watchmen films, I suppose. They’re coming off a run of good animated series, and have a good line of direct to DVD animation. Their videogames of late have been kinda crappy though. Justice League Heroes was basically a subpar version of X-Men Legends or Marvel:Ultimate Alliance. Hopefully Lego Batman is good though, and MK vs. DC:Worlds Collide might be good.
I’m not going to debate which company produces BETTER product, but as to who’s on top? Marvel is, no way around that.
May 31st, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Miller’s a one-trick pony. But doesn’t he fit well in the pre-packaged, repetitive ‘entertainment’ Hollywood likes to vomit every summer? Maybe he should work for Disney.
May 31st, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Why don’t you all quit bitching and wait to actually see what the movie looks like when the 1st real trailer debuts or better yet until you actually see the movie instead of whining like a bunch of 10 year olds.
May 31st, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Frank Miller is an idiot.
All they had to do was get a dark blue suit. Then there wouldn’t be any question.
He just made this movie less enjoyable for the fans, and less profitable for the studio.
You would think that a creator like Miller would know that if you want to please the fans you stick as closely as you can to the comic source material. Would he have liked it if the color of the costumes in 300 had been changed? What a moron!
May 31st, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Miller just said they tried several different tests of the suit, and that black worked best. Maybe they did try different shades of blue.
And now one of you Negative Nellies can opine that they tried the powder blue he used in one of the Sin City stories.
Marvel has about 45% of the market, DC has about 30%, Dark Horse and Image have about %5 each. The other 15% is divided up among 30 or 40 or 50 insignificant companies.
May 31st, 2008 at 5:17 pm
“All they had to do was get a dark blue suit. Then there wouldn’t be any question. ”
Ha! A dark blue suit would have gotten tons of complaints. Just look at how many complaints there were because of the size of the chest emblem in Superman Returns.
If the movie is bad, the suit color will be one of the things people complain about. If it is good, nobody will really care about the suit color.
May 31st, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Hopefully the Spirit will have a new trailer to show it is in color since after I seen it I too could not help think it was a Sin City rip off. The way the character moved was another thing that reminded me of Sin City. The trailer did nothing to make me excited to see this.
And when I hear Frank Miller I keep thinking please not another All Star Batman, Batman/Spawn oneshot, or Dark Knight Returns II.
That said I do still hope the movie will be good.
May 31st, 2008 at 5:28 pm
DC has always had better movies,most of marvel’s stink.
Everything Miller does is like Sin City,so don’t be surprised when The Spirit is.
Gotham Knight looks great and Hellboy 2 looks to have alot of Pan’s Labyrinth in it.
“Why don’t you all quit bitching and wait to actually see what the movie looks like when the 1st real trailer debuts or better yet until you actually see the movie instead of whining like a bunch of 10 year olds.”
That’s what a trailer or teaser is for,it’s a peek at what the movie will be like so you can choose if it looks good or not.
May 31st, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Hey at least he looks like the character. I’m so sick of BATMAN movies where he wears black rubber suits. I’m sorry…. rubber suits look NOTHING like the comics.
May 31st, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I wouldn’t want the clothe suit or the bat panties on the big screen though.
May 31st, 2008 at 6:37 pm
No! Spirit should be wearing a navy blue glenn plaid suit, or a blue suit with pinstrips, or a navy blazer with some nice grey slacks, or…sorry, was just looking at a Brooks Brothers catalogue.
May 31st, 2008 at 7:13 pm
i seem to remember similar complaints about the color in the ‘89 BAtman film as well as the First X-Men.
Miller’s right about the original intention for the color in comics (Same story with Bats)but ultimatley if THAT’S what determines your enjoyment of the film then it’s not even worth seeing it.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:17 pm
DC is the Former Republic, now Rebellion trying to maintain a system of values and ethical code of conduct. Marvel is now the Empire, sliding into a corrupt tyrannical regime with Quesada as the Emperor.
The only people who care about the colour of the Spirit’s suit are the people on this blog. No one else knows, or cares. Wolverine in yellow spandex on film would look stupid - so would a guy in a blue suit. I suppose you were disappointed that Superman didn’t have blue hair in the movie?
May 31st, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Me, I wanna see the all-nude Spirit film.
C’mon, you know Miller would make it.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:55 pm
“DC is the Former Republic, now Rebellion trying to maintain a system of values and ethical code of conduct.”
You quit reading DC before Infinite Crisis, didn’t you.
May 31st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Boohoo, that Frank Miller Spirit movie looks like it’s being done by Frank Miller. I must cry now.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Funny how Miller would have tested a blue suit for a grayscale film.
So, he didn’t want to slavishly follow 40’s print codes, which according to him means completely throwing out the baby with the bath water? He didn’t simply update the technology or whatever, he remade the Spirit from top to bottom in his image rather than Eisner’s. Regardless of whether or not this will pay off in the film, I just wish he’d own up to it instead of giving us excuse after excuse about why he knows more about what the fans want than the fans.
He can justify it all he wants but in my opinion the bottom line is people want to see the Spirit they know and love. Changing the color of his suit is one thing, but changing him from an urban Indiana Jones to Dwight from Sin City goes way beyond that. It seems cheap that Miller’s two big comic-to-movie properties remained completely faithful to the source material but Miller can’t return the favor when it’s his turn.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:11 pm
“Funny how Miller would have tested a blue suit for a grayscale film.”
I must have overlooked the part about the movie not being grayscale the way the trailer and all of the posters so far have been. Another strange choice.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Score one to Paul for the quitcherbitchin post. That said, I’m not in love with how they’re marketing the Spirit right now and, although he’s not saying it, I bet Frank might not be happy either. A black suit is one thing but the marketing suits are, as usual, ruining things by relying too much on Frank Miller and not enough on the Spirit. Things may change when the movie comes out but I get the feeling that even though the movie will have Frank’s signature on it, it will not be (completely) like Sin City or 300. They’re doing Frank a disservice with the marketing…but if the movie DOES turn out like Sin City or 300, even if it’s good, they’re doing a disservice to the property by forcing too much of someone else’s aesthetic on it.
And Marvel movies still trump DC movies (for me) just because the Superman movies aren’t all that good and the last Batman was weak. Does it mean anything that I’ll still see Dark Knight on opening night?
June 1st, 2008 at 1:35 am
Guys, the movies really should not cater to fanboys. Who would they rather appeal to, millions of non-comic readers, or a few ten thousand comic readers?
seriously.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:35 am
I love being the goddamned Spirit.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:32 am
Paul - You forgot to call everyone “baby men” and then beat on your chest like a gorilla.
Actually, did you read the posts before yours? From what I read they were all valid points about the suit color, the promotion for the film, and a criticism of Miller going back to the Sin City well too often. All enough of a concern for Miller for him to address them. No one really passed judgment on the as yet to be seen film though, so the ‘voice of reason’ bit doesn’t make sense there. Or was this one of those pre-written ‘what I wish I’d said’ follow-ups to some other article that you were just waiting to use?
June 1st, 2008 at 4:43 am
“You quit reading DC before Infinite Crisis, didn’t you.”
Actually stopped reading Marvel after Avengers Dissassembled, and began reading DC after Identity Crisis
June 1st, 2008 at 4:52 am
Veering off topic, but…what were the original limitations in using black in four color on pulp stock, and what did he mean by “Bad printing on pulp paper is why it was necessary for every superhero to have his emblem printed on his chest”? I can’t find anything regarding the history of comics coloring online, and wouldn’t know what book if any discusses this.
June 1st, 2008 at 6:43 am
I think the reference to the limitations to black are that to put in any detail of a black subject it was believed you had to use blue highlights. Ex: dark blue/black parts of Spider-man’s costume which eventually became blue, the blue highlights in Superman’s hair, etc. And since the four-color printing was imprecise and rough, at times you could have serious mismatches in the color plates so the character’s emblem would always be its signifier.
But I don’t remember there ever being a time when the Spirit’s suit was almost black, or had heavy black patches to suggest black. It has always been a solid, regular blue every time I’ve seen it.
June 1st, 2008 at 7:59 am
I’m really looking forward to the Spirit movie, but Miller has to be careful when he says “I’m going with his actual intention.”
Unless you have something in writing from Mr. Eisner before he died stating he’s got no problem with any of this, don’t say things like that.
We don’t buy it when Byrne claims to be the heir apparent to all of Kirby’s characters either.
June 1st, 2008 at 10:01 am
http://stuffdaddy.blogspot.com/2008/04/is-it-in-spiritfrank.html
This is a pretty good compare and contrast between Miller’s vision of the character and the true Eisner Spirit. It ain’t pretty.
June 1st, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Good to hear that it’s in color.
I notice he doesn’t address the whole “the city is my lover” garbage, though. The Spirit is not the Goddamn Batman.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 am
The DC/Marvel comparisons put me in DC’s camp except for the Microsoft and Beatles examples.
I can’t believe even “journalists” are still using the DC is square-jawed & old school while Marvel is the cool rebel with depth comparisons. That hasn’t been true since at least the 80’s unless you are a close minded Zombie who refuses to crack open the distinguished competitions’ books.
While Marvel is putting out more movies than DC(at least if you don’t count Vertigo books), the majority of them have been poor. While Iron Man looks great(I still haven’t seen it yet), let’s wait until they have another 1 or 2 under their belts before we throw a parade. They definitely seem to be on the right track for their animation dept. with Spider-Man. Now if they just stop with the awful diret-to-video ones.
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:36 am
SMARTASS8,
Watch IRON MAN, now, now! You won’t be sorry about it!
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:38 am
Black suit or blue, this movie is going to tank HARD. I’ll be shocked if it cracks $25 million at the box office.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Mike, thanks for the link! I like that Miller has addressed some of the concern, but what has he really said? That it’s in color and that he couldn’t do a blue suit? Those aren’t really the fears we Spirit fans are fanning. Here’s what Frank should comment on?
1) Why the “City Is My Mother/Lover” DareDevil/Batman intensity? Isn’t Denny Colt a bit even humored than that dark shit?
2) Why is the villain, who was never seen during the original run, being played by a well known actor? The whole fun of The Octopus, is that you never know who he is and he’s always in a different disguise! He’s like Cobra Commander and Zartan in one! Sam Jackson isn’t playing his voice, from the shots I’ve seen, he’s playing a very visual version of The Octopus in a variety of weird garbs, from Samurai to fur coated pimp!
I’m going to hope, whatever Frank does will work in the end, but as I think of Franks later work, I just keep thinking these six words: Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again!
-The Stuff Daddy
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Ariel, I definitely plan on seeing Iron Man! Hell, I’ve seen every Marvel movie at the theatres since Howard The Duck(I think that only leaves the Captain America serials out but even my parents weren’t alive for them). I just got behind on my summer movies. Since I know Iron Man will be out for awhile, I’ve been catching a few flicks, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Baby Mama, that will be leaving soon. I’ll probably get to Iron Man next weekend. I’m still surprised how good the movie looks since I wasn’t a fan of the character even before JoeyQ turned him into a “villain”.
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Stuff Daddy, you can’t in any way have a character never seen like that in a movie.
That’s the one thing even the diehard Eisner fans can understand is that Octopus has to be seen.
Same thing when they had Stallone take off Dredd’s helmet in that movie. In the comics its NEVER done, but this is the movies, and that’s an exception that has to be allowed.
July 19th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
A great man once said You cant allways get what you want..but if you try sometimes..you get what you need! geeze people lighten up!