It’s not the whole panel, but the highlights should be fine.

Here is the cover to the latest Comic-Con magazine featuring Samuel L. Jackson as the Octopus on the cover.

I know the first thing out of many commenter’s mouths will be the fact that readers never saw the face of the Octopus in The Spirit comics. As I said over a year ago, the biggest problem with seeing Jackson’s face on screen is the demand for face time. It would be so much nicer if he would have played the entire role in shadow. His voice is famous enough to let audiences know it is him.

via Comic-Con International

Variety is reporting two very attractive actresses - Paz Vega (top) and Jamie King (bottom) - have joined the cast of The Spirit.

Vega will play the knife-wielding Plaster of Paris, and King will portray Lorelei, a phantom siren.

I always thought Will Eisner’s women dripped of sex in the pages of the comics, and it looks like Miller is surrounding himself with real life beauties for the movie.

via Variety

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Sarah Paulson has signed on to Will Eisner’s The Spirit movie to be directed by Frank Miller.  Paulson will play Commissioner Dolan’s daughter Dr. Ellen Dolan.

Paulson joins leading ladies Eva Mendes and Scarlett Johansson in the film noir about a rookie cop who returns from the dead to fight crime as the Spirit from the shadows of Central City. However, while Mendes and Johansson are playing femme fatales, Paulson is playing the hero’s true love, Dr. Ellen Dolan, the police commissioner’s daughter.

Remember Paulson as Bunny Yeager in the Notorious Bettie Page? Yummy.

via Hollywood Reporter

Frank Miller has selected Gabriel Macht to star in his adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit movie.

Macht will play the title character, a man who has faked his own death so he can battle crime from the shadows of Central City. He runs up against the Octopus, a villain who’s bent on wiping out the entire city and kills anyone unlucky enough to see his face.

Macht had to audition with all the other actors who wanted to role.

“We think Gabriel has a devilishly charming quality, and the dry wit that embodies the Spirit, and we wanted to do this with someone who can embody this character for the next few years, because we anticipate we’ll be making more than one Spirit movie,” said Lionsgate prexy of film production Mike Paseornek.

The picture will begin shooting in October, and is expected to be in theaters in 2009.

According to Miller, the story he is adapting is the 1950s Sand Saref - which I reviewed yesterday.

via Variety

In an interview with Variety, Frank Miller announced the forthcoming movie adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit will focus on the Sand Saref storyline, which made its debut in newspapers in 1950.

The story focuses on early germ-warfare, the Spirit’s first love who turned to a life of crime, espionage, and romance. The Spirit adventures had already been running in papers for 10 years before this storyline appeared.

“I’ve been writing every word of it myself and storyboarding every frame,” he says. “This is a real work of love, and it’s become my life completely.”

The Sand Saref storyline appears in DC’s Will Eisner’s Spirit Archives Volume 20.

via Variety

Here’s your uh-oh alert for today! The Hollywood Reporter is reporting Frank Miller is in negotiations with Samuel L. Jackson to play the role of the Octopus, the Spirit’s nemesis who wants to take over Central City (not to be confused with that other Central City).

Miller said during an introduction of the project at the Festival de Cannes that Jackson is his first choice to play the evil genius who knows the secrets behind the Spirit. He added that he is beginning to mull different actors to play the comic book hero.

Hmmm… While I like Samuel L. as an actor, I’m a little concerned about him playing the arch-nemesis. If they kept the villain in the shadows like Darwyn Cooke has been doing in the comic, then this could be genius, but knowing actors like to be seen, I think we’ll be seeing a lot of Sam on screen.

What do you think?

via Hollywood Reporter

Or - “Sure, One Has No Socks, But The Other Makes Up For It With A Great Belt…”

Batman-Tarzan. Aliens-Stormwatch. Punisher-Archie. The comic industry is known for weird “chocolate in my peanut butter moments.” Some of these are wondrous beasts where the two things combine into a greater whole, others leave the poor reader wondering who switched the chocolate and peanut butter for salsa and cheesecake. “Two great tastes that taste WEIRD together,” so sayeth the great philosopher Doug to his dad. So, when you take The Spirit, a character who is only a superhero because the syndicate required that Will Eisner draw a mask on him, and Batman, the quintessential superhero archetype, it’s weird. Yeah, they have many points in common: wacky foes, the dark streets of their respective cities, over-the-top femme fatales, older police commissioner mentors. But the basics of the characters are practically opposite. It’s like a Hollywood buddy movie: One’s a superhero masquerading as normal human, one’s a normal human masquerading as superhero. But where’s their common ground?

(more…)

Ever wanted to see how a great page is created? Check out the Will Eisner: A Spirited Life Interview blog for a great rundown of how Will Eisner and Alex Saviuk worked to complete the pages for Dark Horse’s The Escapist series, in which The Escapist meets The Spirit. If you are an artist, fan of Eisner’s work (who isn’t?), or just someone who enjoys the creation process, you should check the site out. Included on the site are the splash page and five additional pages from the story. Simply amazing…

via Will Eisner: A Spirited Life Interview blog (link)

The Spirited Life website (Will Eisner: A Spirited Life Interview Series) has a fascinating interview with Darwyn Cooke on his upcoming DC The Spirit and the upcoming Spirit/Batman one-shot.  If you haven’t seen Cooke’s work before then you are missing out.  He worked on Batman the Animated Series, Justice League and more on the television side.  His New Frontier series for DC will be the first direct to DVD movie produced.  I’m super excited to see a new Spirit monthly title and looking forward to seeing how Batman and The Spirit interact in the one-shot.

Via A Spirited Life (link)

The 2006 Eisner Awards were presented to the winners during the Friday night festivities at the San Diego Comic Convention. Major Spoilers wishes to congratulate the winners.

Best Short Story
“Teenage Sidekick,” by Paul Pope, in Solo #3 (DC)

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
Solo #5, by Darwyn Cooke (DC)

Best Serialized Story
Fables #36-38, 40-41: “Return to the Homelands,” by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, and Steve Leialoha (Vertigo/DC)

Best Continuing Series
Astonishing X-Men, by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday (Marvel)

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The Hollywood Reporter spilled the beans early on The Spirit movie adaptation. According to the industry mag, comic legend Frank Miller will be adapting and directing the flick. Will Eisner’s The Spirit - one of the most influential comics of all time - is being produced by Odd Lot Entertainment’s Deborah Del Prete and Gigi Pritzker who will also finance the film. Also producing is Michael Uslan.

According to Uslan, Miller is the best person to direct the film.

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.’ You have two of the medium’s greatest storytellers of sequential art and cinematic comics discussing the compelling and controversial art form. (source Hollywood Reporter).

Miller was a co-director of Sin City, and knowing how well the movie was adapted from the graphic novels, I’m sure Miller will take Eisner’s source material and do the film justice. According to Uslan, Eisner gave his approval to the film before his passing last year.

Production should begin in about a year.

Via Hollywood Reporter (link)