First of all, Sin Spirity looks hardly like the kind of project that’s going to create some massive groundswell of new interest in Will Eisner’s amazing [though not especially cinematic] bibliography. Great to see the wonderful Gabriel Macht getting a leading role, but it’ll probably help sell Frank Miller comics as much if not more than Will Eisner ones.
So, what kind of approach can an agency [yikes!] take with packaging the transcendent work of the dearly departed legend to where it’s anything of merit? A Contract with God is incredible but who’d finance a film version of it? It’s not quirky like Ghost World or somewhat sensational like A History of Violence or Road to Perdition but it’s still bound to pulp origins. The Spirit is the most high profile bullet in the Eisner gun when it comes to marketing but it’s still seriously niche. Dick Tracy and The Shadow have more crossover appeal and let’s look at their legacy, though I own and love both films.
Balls.
This is a nice respectable thing to read about, for Eisner deserves any acclaim and attention he (and his estate) can get and though I’d love to see his work, primarily the dramatic stuff, translated into lucid and realistic film or television sagas I have no idea how this is anything but a fun P.R. exercise.
Unless an HBO series called Dropsie Ave. is created. Then I’m fully onboard.