Castmembers Samuel L. Jackson, Gabriel Macht, and Jamie King joined director Frank Miller at Comic-Con to share new footage of Frank Miller’s upcoming comic book adaptation, The Spirit. Were the fans wowed?
Besides this year’s Comic-Con buzz movie Watchmen and the fangirl-attracting Twilight panels, no other movie panel was quite as anticipated as that for The Spirit. While the previously released trailers revealed little action, scenes showed at Comic-Con revealed a new trailer featuring the ladies of The Spirit as well as clips demonstrating broader, screwball comedy than we’ve seen so far in teasers.
From IGN Movies: “Miller introduced the film’s new trailer, which focuses more on the women of The Spirit than the original trailer did. There were also several cool shots of the Octopus firing away with an array of incredibly huge guns. They showed another clip later on that had elements of screwball comedy to it as Ellen Dolan and The Spirit have a passionate but unrequited encounter in an operating room that’s interrupted when her father cop (Dan Lauria) and Morgenstern burst in on them.”
The panel also debuted a look at an scene featuring Sand Saref (Eva Mendes), shot with a camera that simulates underwater filming.
From IGN Movies: “Miller introduced another clip that showcased the film’s digital effects, particularly the underwater sequences involving Eva Mendes. A new camera system shoots slower than any other form of camera to simulate underwater motion but without actually shooting underwater. The sequence shows Sand Saref, in an incredibly tight wetsuit, dodging gunfire from the Octopus as she swims underwater to help her partner retrieve a pair of crates that are chained together. The bullets zip past her but clip her partner’s arm. The Octopus then dives in after them but they escape.”
And since it’s a crime-fighting comic book hero, the panel shared a fight scene between The Spirit (Macht) and his nemesis, The Octopus (Jackson).
From SpoutBlog: “The Octopus and The Spirit duking it out in an extremely muddy and watery set. The Spirit gets clocked in the head with a cinder block and quips “You’re giving me a headache, Octopus.” Jackson then gives The Spirit a crotchshot with a massive steel wrench. The Spirit then pounds The Octopus deep into the mud with punch after punch after punch. Literally, like 20 punches.Then The Octopus appears behind The Spirit and crashes a toilet down on The Spirit’s head, pinning his arms in place with the toilet seat. He laughs his ass off (whoops, bad pun) and yells “Come on! Toilets are always funny!””
The Spirit is released Christmas 2008.
Look for more updates from Comic-Con here.
