Frank Miller's "Spirit" Finally Rises | Times Square New York City

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Frank Miller's "Spirit" Finally Rises

Miller's "Spirit" Gets a Backer

Frank Miller

Will Eisner's "The Spirit"

"The Spirit" has been in gestation for a while now. The rights to the comic, a landmark publication started by Will Eisner in the 1940s, was acquired by producer Michael Uslan in the early 1990s. After comic writer Jeph Loeb was hired and eventually left the project in 2005, Frank Miller was approached to both adapt and direct this film, making this his first outing as a writer-director. So, as of July 2006, Miller has been officially attached as director of "The Spirit," a pretty big deal for Miller as this will also be his first solo directing venture (both "Sin City" and "Sin City 2" he co-directed with Robert Rodriguez).

But this is all old news; this week's noteworthy announcement is that the film has finally gotten studio backing and distribution rights by independent film powerhouse Lionsgate and is slated to begin principal photography very soon, perhaps even sooner than on "Sin City 2." Lionsgate will partner on the project with Odd Lot Entertainment, which is producing and co-financing, and Batfilm Productions, which is producing. The deal is a unique multi-picture co-financing, co-production and split rights arrangement, with "The Spirit" being the first film in the pipeline. No official start date or release date has been mentioned, but at least the project is finally getting off the ground.

The question is, does this mean "The Spirit" will be classified as an indie flick?

{mos_ri}

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