Miller's Spirit!!

FRANK MILLER TO ADAPT/DIRECT FILM VERSION OF EISNER'S THE SPIRIT
Frank Miller’s next big comic book gig?

Adapting and directing a film version of his late friend Will Eisner’s The Spirit for Odd Lot Entertainment and Michael Uslan’s Batfilm Prods., according to Variety. Miller will talk about the gig at Saturday’s The Spirit movie panel at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, where the announcement will be officially made.

Odd Lot is financing the film, with Deborah Del Prete, Gigi Pritzker, and Uslan serving as producers. Odd Lot’s Linda McDonough and CBM’s FJ DeSanto will co-produce. Benjamin Melniker will executive produce. It will be the second time Miller has sat in the director’s chair – the first being his co-directing gig with Robert Rodriguez on last year’s adaptation of his Sin City. Miller is currently working on the screen play for Sin City 2, while a film version of his 300 is due in theaters next spring from Warner Bros.

"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," Miller told Variety. "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."

“With his first film, Miller made Sin City live and breathe by capturing the look and style of his source material and expertly guiding an all-star cast,” stated Deborah Del Prete. “We cannot wait to see how he utilizes his endless talents in bringing Eisner’s vision of The Spirit to the screen.”

Uslan: “What makes Frank’s involvement with The Spirit particularly poignant was his special relationship with Will Eisner, captured last year in the book, Eisner-Miller. In it, you have two of the medium's greatest storytellers of sequential art and cinematic comics discussing the ins-and-outs of the compelling and controversial art form.”

Miller told i>Variety that he is working on a treatment that consists in large part of panels from The Spirit strip. Shooting on the film is due to begin late next spring.

The announcement at SDCC will be the second year a movie panel for The Spirit has been held. Last year, the production team hosted a panel at the convention, where it was announced that Jeph Loeb would be adapting the material for film.