Comic-Con summons industry ‘Spirit’

July 11, 2008

Frank Miller and Hollywood preps for mega event

When the hordes descend on San Diego’s Comic-Con on the last weekend in July, two movies, "Twilight" and "The Spirit," will be front and center. While neither involves a superhero, distribs Summit and Lionsgate are counting on Comic-Con fans to help turn their respective pics into household words by the time they hit theaters in December.

Sure to earn a warm Comic-Con welcome is comics superstar Frank Miller, the artist-auteur behind the print "The Dark Knight Returns," "Sin City" and "300." Miller will show footage from his first solo movie, a film-noirish homage to the late comic master Will Eisner’s vintage comic series "The Spirit." Besides Miller, Lionsgate will bring to the Con the film’s stalwart hero, Gabriel Macht, villain Samuel L. Jackson and Jaime King, one of several femme fatales.

A Con virgin, Catherine Hardwicke ("Thirteen") directed the $37 million film version of Stephenie Meyer’s runaway young adult bestseller, "Twilight," which has sold more than 5.5 million copies in the U.S. alone. The clip from this romantic thriller shows high school senior Kristen Stewart ("Into the Wild") going to meet a hunky vampire at an empty dance studio. She’s in serious danger — as she is throughout the movie.

Vampires have fed the cinema since its infancy, from Bram Stoker’s "Dracula" and "Nosferatu" to Anne Rice’s "Interview With the Vampire." But "Twilight" has serious femme appeal. And it’s strictly PG-13.

Comic superstar Frank Miller plans on showing footage from his first solo movie, ‘The Spirit’ at this year’s Comic-Con confab.

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