SDCC: The Spirit Panel

July 25, 2008 on 8:06 pm | In Movies, San Diego Comic Con |

After rushing into another long line from my last panel, I got an aisle seat for the Lionsgate Spirit Panel featuring director Frank Miller, producer Deborah Del Prete and film stars Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson and surprise guest Jamie King. Frank Miller and Deborah Del Prete took the stage amidst uproarious applause and began their presentation.

As Miller spoke about his friendship with Will Eisner—how they came to meet each other and a 25 year argument about comics that became a great friendship—the audience could easily see how passionate Miller was about Eisner, The Spirit, and the prospect of adapting the masterwork for the screen.

“It’s been a dream of a project. I’ve had moments of crazy euphoria that I haven’t had before,” said Miller.

Deborah Del Prete agreed, “I considered this my dream project of a lifetime. I’ve been waiting my entire life to make this movie,” she said. “We wanted to have the voice of the artist only on screen.”

Miller and Del Prete then proceeded to show a trailer for the panel.

The trailer opened with a simple red line, and showcased the many women in “The Spirit.” It flashed to a shadowy figure of a woman, with The Spirit falling out of her mouth. Each woman was introduced, including Sand Saref, Lorelai and Silken Floss. It showed The Spirit leaping off buildings, kissing women and showcasing his revolver. The trailer also teased Samuel Jackson as the Octopus dressed as a samurai asking the Spirit, “What’s with you and women?” It then showed the Spirit getting interrogated by Jackson in a Nazi costume. It concluded with the Spirit and the Octopus fighting while falling off the building.

Samuel L. Jackson then walked out amidst roaring applause from the fans. Jackson was asked a question from the moderator about the quest for a bigger gun.

“The quest for a bigger gun continued as we continued. The biggest gun we could find for a while was a desert eagle,” said Jackson, “and then we started wiring guns together. We made up guns.”

On Miller’s direction, Jackson remarked, “Extremely open to suggestion, totally without ego which is very different from most directors.”

Jackson was asked about all his action figures, and a fan yelled out “Nick Fury!” to which Jackson responded, “When I was a kid, Nick Fury was a white man! It’s so amazing that he finally evolved into something that makes sense to me. But don’t worry. See? You too can grow up to be a black man!”

Jackson got back on topic by describing his interpretation of The Octopus.

“I always visualized The Octopus as this guy who wanted to be so much more than he was,” said Jackson. “He was waiting for this opportunity to explode and become a kingpin…in the midst of losing his mind, he found a way to create something that was different every day and gave him a reason to get up and be larger than life. … He’s the center of the universe. He’s the octopus, he’s got his hand in everything.”

Del Prete mentioned the female cast of the film including Scarlett Johanssen, Kimberly Cox, Eva Mendes, Stana Katic, Sarah Paulson and Jamie King. As a special surprise, King took the stage as the fourth panelist of the afternoon. King spoke about her experiences during Sin City and green screen.

Another clip was then shown of the technology showcased in “The Spirit.”

“San Saref is a lover of jewelry and she has a lead on the most unpseakable valuable treasure of all time. And she has to do a lot of swimming,” Miller teased. “We had to film under water and the technical term of it is… a f—ing nightmare.

“All the scenes you see were shot dry,” continued Miler. “There’s not water in them. Eva was given the instruction to act like The Flash.”

Another clip was then shown featuring Eva Mendes as Sand Saref in a wetsuit, getting shot while a man grabbed onto and broke her necklace. As she fell into the water, The Octopus shot at her. Sand Saref grabbed onto the treasure boxes under water from her accomplice while dodging bullets. One of the boxes got cut off as she wam to the shore. Suddenly, The Octopus jumps into the water just as Sand Saref emerges. Her accomplice says, “It’s The Octopus. You know what he can do!” Sand Saref replies, “Shut up and bleed.”

Finally, with a glowing introduction from Miller about his stellar audition for “The Spirit,” Gabriel Macht walked out and joined the panel accompanied by some of the largest applause of the panel so far. “I think ‘The Spirit’s’ got a lot of different colors. He can laugh at himself, he can be very deadly…he loves women, every woman he meets he just falls in love with. I don’t know what happened but he’s a young detective, he gets shot in the line of duty and about ten hours later he awakes and he sees that he can do things that certain cops can’t do…He says I can be the eyes and ears of Central City.”

Another clip rolled with Sarah Paulson and The Spirit flirting and saying that they “want to break the rules” while making out. A lot. “You’re in love with every woman you meet, Mr. Spirit.” says Paulson. “You say lovely things to every one of us and you mean everything you say every time” He’s suddenly interrupetd by Morgestern and with Sarah Paulsen’s deadly aim with a scalpel, throws it right into the door.

However, fans of The Spirit shouldn’t worry about the somewhat light-hearted tone of the clip.

“There’s nothing campy about this movie,” said Del Prete. “[The Spirit] has stuff from ’40s and ’50s, but also cell phones.”
One final clip was shown for “The Spirit”—a clip that Frank Miller introduced as “When titans clash.”

The clip opened with The Spirit and The Octopus in a muddy sinkhole. Suddenly, they start beating the spit out of each other with everything imaginable: a severed head, a cinder block, a crowbar, a giant wrench and then about fifteen full seconds of The Spirit continually punching Octopus in the face. After seeing Octopus’s hand sink into the muddy pit, we suddenly see his head rear behind The Spirit as he lifts up a toilet and smashes it right over The Spirit’s head! Laughing maniacally, the Octopus delivers the final line of the clip: “Come on! Toilets are always funny!”

Look forward to more updates on The Spirit as we get closer to release.

-SS