He's one of pop culture's most beloved outer space adventurers, but we sure haven't seen a lot of good ol' Buck Rogers lately. (Then again, Flash Gordon's most recent incarnation was pretty awful, so maybe that's a good thing.) Born in 1928 from the pen of Mr. Philip Nowlan, Buck Rogers was a pilot / astronaut who fell into a five-century coma, only to awaken to find the world all futurized and stuff: robots, laser guns, spaceships, interstellar wars, all that jazz.

On screens of various size, the character has appeared in a 12-part 1939 serial from Universal Pictures, a short-lived 1950 television series, and (of course) a 1979 movie / TV program that starred Gil Gerard and (sigh) Erin Gray. So the big guy is heading back to the cinemas? Yep. According to IGN Movies, it's Avi Lerner's Millennium Films that will resurrect the Buck Rogers character for a whole new generation of sci-fi nerdlings. (I guess Millennium is using their Rambo money on this project.)

But it gets even geekier! Apparently author / artist / filmmaker Frank Miller will be the one in the director's chair! IGN says that the $40 million Buck Rogers project will be Miller's next gig once he's all finished with The Spirit. The screenplay comes from genre veteran Flint Dille, but there's one thing that gives me a little pause, and it's this quote specifically: "The cheapness of the low-budget effects will be a running joke in the movie, which will retain the campiness of the 1980s TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century starring Gil Gerard." Whoa, really? That's the direction you want to go in, fellas? Maybe I'm just an old-school Kaelist, but I think BAD things happen when you try to force "campiness." A sense of humor is fine, but let's not make a cheap joke out of good ol' Buck Rogers.

After presenting The Spirit at last month's New York Comic-Con, Lionsgate feels good enough about Frank Miller's solo directorial debut to move it from its January 16th dead zone of a release date to Christmas Day, 2008. So instead of going up against Mall Cop, starring Kevin James as a wacky security guard, and the Notorious B.I.G. biopic, The Spirit will face off against Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories, the supposedly ultra-heartwarming Marley & Me, The Tale of Despereaux, and the aftershocks of Twilight and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

"Adult" Christmas counterprogramming has not traditionally fared too well. Last year's Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem actually did okay, but remember Black Christmas? No? What about Darkness? The move is indeed a vote of confidence, but it might up throwing the film to the wolves. The key is to position it as a prestige picture rather than a throwaway. There's been enough fanfare around the promotional materials released thus far to make that look like a possibility. If Lionsgate can put it on people's radar in advance as a Christmas Movie to See, rather than have it randomly show up to compete against the holiday heavy-hitters, it could work.

Take a look at the trailer for The Spirit here.

Frank Miller's place in comic book history is already secure, but these days, he's aiming to leave a sizable IMDB entry too. Miller revealed exclusively to MTV Movies that
not only is there renewed interest in a film adaptation of his comic miniseries Hard Boiled, but that he's hoping to direct it himself. "We're talking about [it]. I've got a really unusual way I want to do it."

After co-directing Sin City, and helming The Spirit himself, he's officially caught the bug. "I'm in love with directing. I've found a way to expand my career. Comics and directing are really two sides of the same coin. That's what Robert Rodriguez taught me ... good drama is good drama."

Hard Boiled was originally published in 1990 by Dark Horse, and is one of the few Miller comics out there that the man himself didn't illustrate. It is about a humble insurance investigator named Carl Seitz, who unexpectedly discovers that he's a cyborg assassin named Nixon. Though psychotic, he's also heralded as the savior of the robot race. It was remarkably violent for its day -- and still is. At one point, it was in development to be directed by David Fincher, and starring Nicolas Cage.

People are really hating on Miller for this swerve in his career, but frankly, I think it's pretty cool. I always admire anyone who can transition from one field to another -- and it is always exciting when an author gets to helm their own work. Alan Moore should have totally gone this route.

The first two posters for The Spirit have debuted online shortly before the trailer (which hits today at 4pm). The image above comes to us via AICN and it appears to be the official teaser poster. Included after the jump is the exclusive Comic Con poster for The Spirit (via Yahoo Movies), featuring Eva Mendes as Sand Saref -- bending down, oozing sexy in some tight black outfit. The gal looks pretty damn good, and I love how her character's name is only a few letters off from the name of a font. Fonts are hot! Right off the bat we can see these first two posters have that Sin City vibe Miller and Robert Rodriguez created a few years ago for the live-action version of Miller's other comic. The cold, newspaper-retro style with a splash of bright red.

Personally, I absolutely loved Sin City and so I'm definitely loving what we've seen so far from The Spirit. I do wonder how much Miller (who's directing The Spirit himself) borrowed from his experience with Rodriguez. Will we see an identical vision, or will Miller emerge with his own style, look and feel? What do you think?

Comic Con poster after the jump, or in the gallery below.

I was wondering what happened to this project. Frank Miller's Ronin was optioned last spring in the glory days of 300's massive box office. And then it faded away after talk of filming it against a blue screen a'la Zack Snyder.

Perhaps realizing that Miller was never actually going to write a sequel to 300 (despite the continued hopes of Mark Canton), Warner Bros has finally revived the project and hired a writer -- The Hollywood Reporter says it is Joby Harold, the man behind the script and camera for Jessica Alba's Awake. Sylvain White is still attached to direct.

Ronin is a series about a masterless samurai who is reincarnated in New York City, sometime in the near future. Of course, New York is a bleak and lawless society -- and in the midst of it, the reincarnated samurai is forced to confront the demon who assassinated his master centuries before. It is one of Miller's earliest works, and arguably the one that he really honed his skills on. Someday, they'll call this his "samurai period." (I wonder if we will ever see his samurai Wolverine on film?)

Darren Aronofsky was once attached to adapt and direct it -- obviously, it fell through, and I can't find any reason as to why. He never seems to hold on to the Miller projects, which is a shame. I can't say that the combination of White and Harold fill me with confidence, particularly after a director like Aronofsky. I guess we'll wait and see.

Last summer, I attended a thesis presentation by one of my classmates. It was on the portrayal of women and minorities in comic books. I wasn't the only girl there, but I was the first one to arrive. As we waited for kick off and were casually discussing the topic, one of the other students piped up, "Hey, let's ask her -- you're a girl who reads comics, what do YOU think of Frank Miller? Is he a misogynist or what?"

Yikes. And I've since learned that no man or woman ever expects you to say "No" to that question. If you say "No, I really don't," jaws will drop and everyone will say "But what about that Vicki Vale thing?" Damning, to be sure -- but 95% of comic book writers and illustrators do the exact same thing. But, to make a long story short, I always point to Elektra, and we all begrudgingly agree to disagree.

Well, over at the official website for The Spirit, Miller has posted a new production blog. While he never specifically addresses the charges against him (and may not even be thinking of them as he posted this), Miller nevertheless has written a spirited defense. "I love writing tough, powerful women." And he has set out to do just that with one chick specifically -- Ellen Dolan, love interest of the title character. The character has proved to be a challenge, a weak stereotype of the age in which she was created. Miller calls her "a lousy character" and complains, "[The Spirit] even tossed her over his knee and spanked her. And she took it. Ellen Dolan made Donna Reed look like Angelina Jolie."

Universal Pictures and Dark Horse Entertainment have struck a three year production and distribution deal. Universal now has creative access to Dark Horse's entire stable (pardon the pun) of characters and properties, as well as anything the company aquires in the hopes of turning it into a film. In return, Dark Horse gains a permanent studio home for all future properties, and the option to distribute their own films through Universal.

Dark Horse has been responsible for publishing some of the cooler comics in the past few years -- but their movie output has been less than stellar. For every Hellboy, there's been a Son of the Mask and Alien vs Predator. Maybe a partnership with Universal will change that.

So many Dark Horse properties are in creative limbo now that I am really curious to see what's going to happen to them. Can Universal buy back the rights to Sin City so the sequel can be made? Lone Wolf and Cub? I know I am going to be wrong on who owns what, it's one of those days where Google is providing nothing in the way of reliable information -- and Dark Horse Entertainment only lists Hellboy II as their upcoming project, which is no help. Feel free to refresh my memory.

At any rate, I wonder if it means we'll see Frank Miller directing Martha Washington one of these days. I don't think that's been optioned yet.

[via Superhero Hype]

And here I was thinking "Wow, we haven't heard much about The Spirit lately."

Frank Miller has posted his third blog on the film's official site and this one finds him full of praise for his cast. "One outstanding reason I am a lucky SOB is because I get to work with beautiful goddesses and gods who also, by the way, can ACT." Miller certainly has lined up a fairly impressive cast -- though even the fanboys are skeptical that Jaime King and Eva Mendes fall into the "great talent" category.

I don't know if it's my compute or the site, but the blog goes blank about halfway through, so if it works for you, you'll have to fill me in on what else Miller says. All in all, his blogs make one hope that Miller directs as well as he writes about directing. . .

Sadly, while he opened the floor to heroic discussion, a look at the forum reveals he never actually stayed to listen. And here I was hoping I'd discovered the secret place where Miller hangs out and talks about bullets, broads, and booze.

I'm not a comic-book reader, so I didn't know much about the subject of Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist before seeing the documentary at Austin Film Festival. I knew he was the creator of The Spirit, a comic-book series that Frank Miller is adapting into a feature film ... and that's about all I knew. Fortunately, the documentary filled in many of the blanks for me about Eisner and provided some interesting details about the artist's life.

Eisner is credited for being one of the pioneers in the comic-book form -- as the film's title indicates, he believed in making the comics sequential, giving them an ongoing storyline, which was not standard back in the 1930s when he started work as an artist. His character The Spirit was not a traditional superhero with crazy superpowers, but an ordinary guy in the smallest of masks, who happened to fight crime. During WWII and afterwards, Eisner created military instructional manuals that were drawn in a comic-book style to make them interesting and easy to understand. Later in life, he created more dramatic, personal comic books (A Contract with God) that he dubbed "graphic novels," and paved the way for this type of work to be taken seriously.

Frank Miller productions certainly know how to rack up the attractive women, unless, of course, the flick in question is about a graphic war or something. The Spirit has already got the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Stana Katic, and Sarah Paulson, but it isn't quite bursting at the seams yet. Now Variety reports that Paz Vega (Spanglish) has been added to the cast, along with Sin City alum Jaime King (Goldie). Is there any chance now that men won't be going to the theaters in hordes to see this?

The Spirit is not some cheerleader story, but rather the tale of a rookie cop named Denny Colt who returns from the dead to fight evil in Central City. The latest cast additions are playing what Booklist describes as "two of [Will] Eisner's most dangerous femmes fatale." Vega will play the knife-wielding, "treacherous French nightclub dancer" (and wonderfully named) Plaster of Paris, while King will play Lorelei Rox, "a siren who lured truck drivers to their doom." Paris considers herself "the toast of Monmartre, I stick to my man until death us do part!" While Lorelei, on the other hand, sings "a hypnotic song that mesmerizes her victims." (Go here for Rox and more Spirit characters.) Methinks they'll both be great. How about you? Are these actresses right for the roles, and are you reading for a little Spirit?

Like most people on the internet, we at Cinematical love lists. I love them so much that I wish I could write about everyone I read, but unfortunately there are too many geeks out there making up too many lists, and not enough love to go round (can't you see this is the land of confusion .... ). But since another thing we love around here is Star Wars -- not just the movies but also the fans, the debates, the complaints, etc. -- I figured that these four lists were worth sharing. Because they all mention something related to George Lucas' popular universe. Three of the lists also reference a lot of Star Trek, but with J.J. Abrams rebooting the franchise and all, I think Trekkies have enough love right now. Meanwhile, the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars occurred this year, and we still had to read about things like the Harry Potter franchise out-grossing the Star Wars series and Serenity beating out Star Wars as a best sci-fi film poll. So, thanks to the people at Fark.com, who love lists even more than we do, here are four movie-related lists that give some appropriate props:

• First we have the Times' countdown of the 40 most memorable aliens. Unfortunately, the only Star Wars aliens listed are at #32 and #26, and they're the Ewoks and Max Rebo, respectively. Considering most of the characters in the series can be considered aliens, this is harsh, but since I'm one of the few Ewok fans out there, I appreciate the gesture. Even if ALF is higher up on the list than they are. At least they're still better than the Coneheads. Anyway the top ten here is full of other significant movie aliens, including the arachnids of Starship Troopers, E.T., the Transformers, Superman, The Blob, The Thing and, at the top spot, God.
  
• Next there's Kunochan.com's countdown of the top twenty starship captains. Once again, Star Wars doesn't get the #1, but it's understandable that Star Trek's most famous captains get the first two slots. At #3, though, is Han Solo. However, the list's author does point out that he had to put a Star Wars character in the top five to avoid having his house firebombed. I don't mind the disingenuous comment; Solo deserves to be higher up than Captain Janeway and the dude from Firefly/Serenity. Down the line at #11 we've also got Grand Moff Tarkin.

Following up her turn in the comic-book movie Ghost Rider, Eva Mendes has signed on to co-star in another comic adaptation, The Spirit. Based on the classic Will Eisner character, the movie will be written and directed by Frank Miller. Variety reports that Mendes joins a cast that includes Gabriel Macht as the title hero, Samuel L. Jackson as the villainous Octopus and Scarlett Johansson as the Octopus' accomplice, Silken Floss. Although Miller has hinted in the past that the film will feature no love interest -- The Spirit is "a bit of a slut" -- I figured that Johansson would at least serve as the closest thing. Her character would figure well as a femme fatale who seduces and/or ends up falling for The Spirit. So, now how does Mendes' casting fit in? The Hollywood Reporter says the actress is playing a character named Sand Saref, who is described as "a beauty with dangerous curves." The trade further explains her role as the only woman to ever break The Spirit's heart. Saref and Denny Colt (The Spirit's alter ego) were teenage sweethearts before Colt's uncle killed Saref's father. Afterward, Saref entered a life of crime and espionage.

So, I guess The Spirit won't be portrayed as a complete man-whore. According to plot points given at this year's Comic-Con, the film will actually feature a love triangle between The Spirit, Saref and another character named Ellen Dolan, who has yet to be cast. In addition to casting Mendes, Miller has hired a cinematographer for the movie: Bill Pope. The DP is no stranger to comic book movies; he shot Spiderman 2 and 3, as well as Sam Raimi's Darkman (which is like a comic book movie) and Army of Darkness. His greatest and most memorable work, though, would have to be The Matrix trilogy.

Who is ... The Spirit? Gabriel Macht is The Spirit. That's right, Frank Miller has gone with a relative unknown to star in The Spirit, his adaptation of Will Eisner's classic comic. Macht actually made his feature film debut 27 years ago (and then took an 18-year hiatus to grow up), and he's been appearing in supporting roles just under the bill since 2001, but he's hardly a household name. TV fans may remember him from NBC's short-lived The Others and moviegoers should recognize him -- if not by name then by face -- from The Good Shepherd, Because I Said So and The Recruit. By the time The Spirit rolls out in 2009, though, Macht may be more familiar. Next year he stars opposite Kate Beckinsdale in Dominic Sena's Whiteout. The actor didn't win the role of the masked crime-fighter by being unknown; he was apparently cast on spot following his audition. Lionsgate head Mike Paseornek is happy with Miller's choice, describing Macht as having a "devilishly charming quality," and he thinks the actor will be able to embody The Spirit throughout a possible franchise.

Miller is scheduled to begin shooting The Spirit in October -- Variety reports he's doing Sin City 2 first, but that doesn't sound right -- so hopefully we'll hear soon about confirmed casting for the film's villain, Octopus. Of course, the character could be played by someone even more unknown than Macht since his face shouldn't actually be seen, but last we heard, Samuel L. Jackson was in talks for the role. For those of you out of the loop, The Spirit is a suit-and-tie-wearing, vigilante hero who was once a detective named Denny Colt before he faked his death to fight crime in Central City. His main nemesis, Octopus, is bent on wiping out the city, killing anyone with the misfortune of seeing his deformed face. The film will reportedly skip over The Spirit's origin and dive right into his adventures. Also The Spirit will apparently be portrayed as "a bit of a slut", so we shouldn't expect any Hollywood-enforced love interest, just a lot of random women.