In an upcoming entry in his production blog, writer/director Frank Miller addresses some concerns that fans have that his upcoming adaptation of Will Eisner 1940’s comic book series The Spirit will be a retread of Miller’s Sin City movie.
After the film’s teaser trailer and outdoor banner were released last month, many people thought its look — black and white with a splash of red, placed against green scene sets — too closely resembled Miller’s co-directing venture with Robert Rodriguez on 2005’s Sin City.
But Miller confirms that The Spirit is actually a full-color movie, and that he hopes to make it into a movie trilogy all its own.
The director also said that with The Spirit movie, he is trying to do what Eisner, his mentor, intended by creating “something new, witty, and exploratory” and that it will not be just like Sin City.
[THE SPIRIT] only resembles SIN CITY in that I am its director, and, well, yes, I have my ways and my proclivities. Luckily, I was able to discern three important proclivities I share with the Master. We both love good stories. We both love New York City. And we both love beautiful women.
Another change that fans of the Eisner comic book series are concerned with is Miller’s decision to change The Spirit’s traditional blue hat, mask, and jacket to black. Miller explains that the Spirit’s original blue attire was the product of the limitations of pre-digital printing which necessitated everything in black be printed in blue.
Miller assures that in creating The Spirit’s look for the film, tests were run with the blue color, but that “the blue made the Spirit look like an unfortunate guest at a Halloween party.”
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.
Miller’s aforementioned blog posting will be at the film’s official site soon, but for now, SSH has the first look on the upcoming ninth entry.
In an upcoming entry in his 
I think if anyone can bring The Spirit to life, it is this man.
Comment by Jerry — May 31, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
You can’t blame everyone for thinking that it was JUST like Sin City. The only thing to go on was the teaser trailer and the posters, which do look just like Sin City. Even that Eva Mendes poster did too! Let’s get another trailer, one that’s different, so we can see what it will really look like. And I don’t mind the black instead of blue, it kinda makes sense.
Comment by CP — June 1, 2008 @ 12:24 am
I call bs. Unless it is written or given verbal consent by Eisner himself to say yeah go ahead and change whatever you want, I’m cool with that. I am a creator and I would like to think that if I gave someone the rights and my blessing to do a movie of my work that they would be loyal to the original work as humanly possible. And unless I said, it’s yours now, do what you will to it, I would hope that my origianl material would be kept intact. And yes I write this as a complete nerd and hardcore fan of comic books.
Comment by Celina Hernandez — August 1, 2008 @ 2:18 am