While the movie didn’t do very well, this short spoof inspired by the movie is hysterical. The Spirit’s Day Off was created by the do-it-yourself filmmaking experts over at Indy Mogul. Enjoy!

While I still do not understand the reasoning of releasing The Spirit on Christmas Day, I sorta like this Holiday spot they put together. It is mostly stuff we’ve already seen with bits of new pieces mixed in. Enjoy!

Two new posters for Frank Miller’s film adaptation of Will Eisner’s “The Spirit” have been released.  The posters are oppisite sides of an alleyway fight between The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) and The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson). And I gotta say, I absolutely love these new posters. They feel a lot less like copies of “Sin City” and much more like they are finally finding a style that works for Eisner’s classic comic strip.

Click the posters to enlarge and for more coverage on “The Spirit” from the 2008 San Diego Comic Con, click here.

From now to the end of the year there will be a wide variety of adaptations hitting theaters.  From books to video games and remakes, no properties have been left untouched by Hollywood. Read on for a full list of adaptations that will be hitting theaters in the fall/early winter.

September

9/5

• Bangkok Dangerous (based on the 1999 film)

9/12

• Towelhead (based on the novel by Alicia Erian)
• The Women (based on the 1939 film)

9/17

• Appaloosa (based on the novel by Robert B. Parker)

9/19

• The Duchess (based on the biography Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Forman)
• A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (based on the short story by Yiyun Li)

9/26

• Choke (based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk)
• Miracle at St. Anna (based on the novel by James McBride)
• Nights in Rodanthe (based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks)

October

10/3

• Blindness (based on the novel by José Saramago)
• How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (based on the memoir by Toby Young)
• Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (based on the novel by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn)
• What Just Happened? (based on the novel What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line by Art Linson)

10/10

• Body of Lies (based on the novel by David Ignatius)
• City of Ember (based on the novel by Jeanne Duprau)
• Quarantine (based on the 2007 film REC)

10/17

• Max Payne (based on the video game)
• The Secret Life of Bees (based on the novel by Sue Monk Kidd)
• Flash of Genius (based on the New Yorker story by John Seabrook)

November

11/14

• The Road (based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy)

11/21

• Twilight (based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer)

December

12/5

• Frost/Nixon (based on the play by Peter Morgan)
• Punisher: War Zone (based on the comic book series created by Gerry Conway)

12/12

• The Day the Earth Stood Still (based on the 1951 film)
• Doubt (based on the play by John Patrick Shanley)

12/19

• The Tale of Despereaux (based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo)
• Yes Man (based on the autobiography by Danny Wallace)

12/25

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
• Marley and Me (based on the autobiography by Josh Grogan)
• The Spirit (based on the comic book series created by Will Eisner)
• The Time Traveler’s Wife (based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger)

12/26

• Revolutionary Road (based on the novel by Richard Yates)

I love Sin City and I love Frank Miller’s comics, but I’m still not sold on The Spirit. It really irritates me when people talk about “Frank Miller movies” and his “film style” when they fail to realize that he has no style yet. Sin City was only co-directed by Miller; the actual directing was done by Robert Rodriguez. He brought Miller on as a co-director in order to preserve the style of the comic books. Miller had previously never allowed his work to be filmed, but when Rodriguez offered him co-director credit and an opportunity to be on the set to be certain that Rodriguez wasn’t screwing up his work, he agreed to let him make Sin City. Miller had little to no part in the actual directing of the film and the style is literally his comic book brought to life.

The Spirit is Frank Miller’s actual first film, as he is directing someone else’s material in his first solo effort. So far, it all looks like a cheap Sin City to me, as though he hasn’t actually developed his own style and is simply aiming for the praise that Sin City earned. I’m nowhere near being sold on The Spirit yet, especially since there’s just no reason to give it that Sin City style. I will give Frank this though, this is the third Comic-Con I’ve seen him speak at and this was the most vocal I’ve ever seen him. He’s normally very quiet and introverted during panels with short answers, yet he seemed very enthused to show some Spirit footage for us. He brought out some of his cast: Gabriel Macht (The Spirit himself), Jamie King (Lorelei Rox), and Samuel L. Jackson (The Octopus) and showed us various clips from the film.

The first clip showed The Spirit with one of his many women, Ellen Dolan (Sarah Paulson) as they have an intimate conversation. The second clip was prefaced with a long explanation of this new technology that they used in order for the actors to look like they were underwater though they actually weren’t…however it didn’t look to me as though they were underwater at all. The clip showed Sand Saref (Eva Mendes) looking for something in a lake when The Octopus shows up. The final clip was a campy fight sequence between The Octopus and The Spirit, and the closest thing to the actual source material.

The problem with all these clips was that they all looked like they were from different films. The first conversation appeared out of a 50’s noir flick, the second underwater sequence out of a cheesy sci fi flick with bad effects, and the third appeared to be a campy super hero flick, which is what I think the rest of the film should look like. It all makes me just a little nervous that Miller’s trying to do too much in his first outing. If anything though, it certainly looks like he’s enjoying himself.