Sam Jackson Compares The Spirit to Looney Tunes

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 23, 2008

Sam Jackson as The Octopus in The Spirit

I’m not sure that the cast of The Spirit is helping Frank Miller’s cause this week. First Gabriel Macht was talking this week about The Spirit’s clumsy nature, then Samuel L. Jackson, who plays the film’s villain Octopus, is comparing it to Wile E. Coyote. In fact, to be more precise, Jackson had this to say in an interview with MTV’s Splash Page:

“['The Spirit'] is a comic book. You can call ‘The Dark Knight’ a comic book, but no, it’s a graphic novel. There’s a difference between a comic book and a graphic novel.”

“‘The Spirit’ is funny. It’s tongue-in-cheek, wry humor,” continued Jackson. “It’s sort of Wile E. Coyote with real people. We hit each other with big things [and] we’re both kind of indestructible, so it’s funny in that way. We get shot up, we get stabbed up, we just don’t die.”

Perhaps it isn’t as bad as I would lead you to believe — perhaps this movie will work with its tongue-in-cheek humor and its silly antics. Perhaps it will also eliminate all of the awkward and corny footage that was shown at Comic-Con this past July and digitally replace it with something that we can all buy into. Perhaps that’s a stretch — I don’t know. What I do know is that whether we like it or not, The Spirit will be in theaters Christmas Day.

On the side of good news, this film is littered with T&A, courtesy of Eva Mendes, Jamie King, Sarah Paulson, Paz Vega and Scarlett Johansson. And who doesn’t like a little T, mixed with a little A?

Are you with me in my battle against The Spirit? Or are you one of those ‘optimists’ who is still holding out hope?


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  • I have always felt that the spirit looked incredibly lame, and awkward. Obviously the cast feels the same way, maybe they just signed on because of Miller, who knows, but I think this will be a flop.
  • If you don’t want to see a funny, live-action cartoon, I don’t want to know you.

    Yes, I’m willing to admit that some of the footage we’ve seen has been a little rough, but they still have a bit to polish things up, and I have no doubt that’s what they’re doing. The Spirit is clumsy - he’s an awkward presence, less smooth than most noir detectives. And he’s funny.

    Jackson seemed enthusiastic about his comments, not embarrassed. It think The Spirit is going to surprise a lot of people while staying true to the feel of the source material. Obviously, it doesn’t have as large a fan base to draw from, but hopefully it will offer up something different than people are used to.

    Besides, how can you see Frank Miller, Sam Jackson, and a bevy of hot women and not have at least a little faith?
  • HAGE
    optimist!
  • Mars Ambassador
    "If you don’t want to see a funny, live-action cartoon, I don’t want to know you."

    That's why cornball movies like Shoot 'Em Up starring Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti are for. If you've read The Spirit, have ANY respect for the body of work of Will Eisner or an OUNCE of integrity as an artist transferring another's work into another medium, then you will be disgusted by everything we've seen about The Spirit so far. And the actors involved don't make it any more appealing. In fact, they're justifying our worst fears.

    Download some of The Spirit comics and recoil in horror after watching the 2 trailers again. It reminds me of Val Kilmer's 'The Saint'. Which was probably the most insulting translation of anything I've ever seen in my entire life. This will either top it or be a close 2nd.
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