Comic Con: Frank Miller Talks 300!
By Kellvin Chavez on July 26, 2006
Undoubtedly, the show stopper at this years Comic Con was the presentation
from Warner Brothers upcoming digital Epic "300."
"300"
creator Frank Miller was on hand to answer some questions about directing "The
Spirit", "Sin City 2" and his other upcoming projects. Below
is what he had to say to us:
SEEMS YOU'VE MADE YOUR PEACE WITH HOLLYWOOD…
MILLER: I don't know. I haven't been spending a lot of time in Hollywood.
I spend a lot of time in Austin, Texas and Montreal, Canada.
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK IN
RESPONSE TO THE FOOTAGE THAT WE SAW DOWNSTAIRS?
MILLER: There's
nothing like completely out of control cheering. It warms the soul [Laughs].
HOW
MUCH OF THE NOVEL IS IN YOUR MOVIE?
MILLER: All of it. There might
be some subtle things withdrawn and other things added in, but it's my book plus
some other material that's brought in.
WHERE DID THIS APPROACH DIFFER
FROM WHAT WAS DONE WITH 'SIN CITY?'
MILLER: It was very close, very
close. I mean, the screens were green on 'Sin City' and they were blue on '300,'
but it was still a matter of using live actors and then creating a world around
them by computer.
WHEN ZACK SNYDER CAME TO YOU WITH HIS ADDITIONS FOR
'300,' WHAT WAS YOUR INITIAL REACTION?
MILLER: Well, we talked them
over. I had some suggestions and he's very good as a collaborator, but one thing
that I learned in directing is that it was in his hands and so ultimately I had
to defer. I mean, if he was doing anything that I thought was outrageously wrong
I would've raised a stink as the rights holder, but it seemed to be in very good
shape and I didn't want to be an impediment to another director.
SO
THE SCENES THAT HE ADDED, DID THEY FIT IN WELL WITH THE FILM?
MILLER:
They seemed to, yeah. They seemed to. What I saw was a rough cut. It's more
that it has to do with the Queen and that's the main change. It's mostly in terms
of treatment. Zack's work is so dramatic. As you might've seen on the trailer
the combat scenes are unbelievable.
THERE'S ALSO NEW CHARACTERS WITH
THE GIANTS THERE?
MILLER: Yeah, there is some of that too. There
are weirder and weirder Persians.
THE COMBAT SCENES ARE UNBELIEVABLE,
AND THEY WERE FILMED IN FRONT OF THE SCREEN. WERE YOU INVOLVED WHILE THEY WERE
SHOOTING THOSE SCENES?
MILLER: No. I realize that there is only
room for one director and it was Zack and so I visited just to check it out and
they invited me out and I got to see the combat scene and got to know some of
the crew and cast. But this was Zack's movie, start to finish.
YOU SAID
THAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING A LOT OF WORK IN AUSTIN, BUT WHAT GOT YOU SO INTO SUPPORTING
THIS FILM AS A PROJECT?
MILLER: It was determination of three people
that did it. John (?) who really spearheaded the whole thing. It was Mark Canton
who believed in it and pushed it and pushed and there was Zack Snyder who got
it and really seemed ready to go.
WERE THERE OTHER DIRECTORS ATTACHED
TO THIS PROJECT BEFORE ZACK?
MILLER: I'm not aware of any.
ANY
OTHER MAJOR DEPARTURE FROM THE NOVEL?
MILLER: Yeah, they all live
[Laughs]. No, not really, not really.
SO IT'S CONSISTENT WITH THE NOVEL
THROUGHOUT?
MILLER: Well, it's consistent with the storyline. A
lot of my shots are used, but when you make the adaptation there is an awful lot
of creating that has to be done and they had terrific storyboards based on the
book, but it was like the book was just used as key art. Zack is a real preparer
and so by the time that they started shooting they really had the thing mapped
out.
YOU MENTIONED THAT LYNN VARLEY WAS INVOLVED SOMEWHERE IN THE BACKGROUND?
MILLER: On the book.
BUT SHE WASN'T INVOLVED ON THE MOVIE?
MILLER:
No, not on the movie.
OF THE FOOTAGE THAT YOU'VE SEEN WHAT WAS THE MOST
SATISFYING SCENES THAT YOU CREATED FOR THE COMIC BOOK THAT YOU SAW COME TO LIFE?
MILLER:
Ah, that's really hard to tell. The darker part of me would be when the Spartans
push the dead soldiers on the immortals just because it's so perfectly realized,
and generally the combat stuff is pretty stunning. But there are hundreds of images
that I was looking at. Okay, if I'm going to pick a favorite it would be the boy
stabbing the guy with the spear and the shadow of the wolf with the spear going
into his mouth. That was one of my favorite panels that I drew and he captured
it to perfection.
YOU HAVE A VERY STYLIZED GRAPHIC SENSE. THIS MOVIE
HAS A VERY STYLIZED ACTION FORMAT. DO YOU THINK THAT'S IMPORTANT TO BRINGING '300'
TO THE SCREEN?
MILLER: I think that it's very important. Most of
what makes a comic book a comic book is the drawing and for instance if 'Sin City'
we're not shot in such an abstract manner or were not drawn in such an abstract
manner it would be known as a good crime book, but instead it's known for environment.
An even better example is 'Calvin & Hobbs.' Without Bill Waterston's amazing
drawings and cartoons it would've just been a forgotten, pretty funny strip. Instead
it's beloved to this day.
HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT WRITING ANY ORIGINAL
SCREENPLAYS ON THE BACK OF THE SUCCESS OF YOUR OTHER MOVIES?
MILLER:
[Laughs] I've got so much to do right now. I've got to finish 'Sin City II' and
then there's 'The Spirit.'
'SPIRIT' IS GOING AFTER THAT, RIGHT?
MILLER:
Probably.
WHAT'S THE PLAN ON 'SIN CITY II?' DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU'RE
GOING TO DO THAT?
MILLER: That all depends on when they finish up
'The Grindhouse,' but I'm on deck.
SINCE ROBERT [RODRIGUEZ] IS DOING
THAT PROJECT ARE YOU GOING TO GET MORE INVOLVED IN THE PRE-PRODUCTION OF THAT
MOVIE?
MILLER: We haven't really discussed it yet. At this stage
of the film I'm not going to bother with that.
DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS
TO DIRECT A MOVIE YOURSELF?
MILLER: Yeah. 'The Spirit.'
HOW
ARE YOU GOING TO TRY AND TRANSLATE [WILL] EISNER'S VIBE ONTO SCREEN?
MILLER:
Well, I'm going to take some of the lessons that I learned from Robert Rodriguez
and that's that I'm going to be using the comics as storyboards and doing my best
to be as faithful as possible. Now the tone that I have in mind will probably
surprise a lot of readers because they're used to that sort of kinder gentler
'Spirit' after Will got drafted, and this is going to be a scarier take on it
much more like the earlier years.
IS THERE A PARTICULAR STORYLINE THAT
YOU'RE GOING TO FOCUS ON?
MILLER: There are a couple. I want to
use several of the femme fatales and the octopus and right now I'm putting together
how they're all going to mix up together.
ANY THOUGHT TO HOW YOU'RE GOING
TO BRING EISNER'S GRAPHIC STYLE TO THE SCREEN LIKE 'THE SPIRIT' TITLE ALWAYS BEING
A PART OF A CITYSCAPE?
MILLER: Yeah. I do. I'm not going to beat you over the head
with the logo, but I think that in just the same way that Robert's people were
able to capture the feel of 'Sin City' I think that catching the more romantic
look of Eisner's city will be a lot of fun.
IS THAT GOING TO BE GREEN
SCREEN ALSO?
MILLER: Green. Almost all green screen.
IS
THAT THE ONLY WAY DO YOU THINK TO DO A COMIC BOOK MOVIE PROPERLY?
MILLER:
Well, as a cartoonist it certainly appeals to me more, but I'm not saying that
that's the only way at all. I mean, look at the very first 'Superman' movie. That
had very little blue screen use, but it was certainly a successful movie, but
it's just a more expensive and slower way to do it. And I happen to love the visual
style of comics and I find that superheroes tend to look a little sillier in a
real world.
WHAT HAVE YOU GOTTEN FROM YOUR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH
EISNER THAT YOU WANT TO GET INTO THE FILM?
MILLER: Will didn't talk
that much about 'The Spirit.' He was mostly interested in his newer stuff. I mainly
am operating on my own understanding of the material, my own love of it. So what
I'm bringing here is a determination to do it, not just to do it justice, but
to make it 'The Spirit.'
SO MUCH OF WHEN THE MOVIE COMES OUT IS ABOUT
TIMING. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT '300' AND 'SPIRIT' IN TERMS OF WHY THIS MIGHT NOW BE
A GOOD TIME FOR THOSE FILMS?
MILLER: Well, in the case of '300'
you've got three hundred special ops up against hordes from the Middle East. I
mean, do the math there, but it's mainly just a timeless tale. Some stories don't
exist in real time. They don't get dated and if it hasn't been dates since 480
BC I think that it's holding up just fine. In the case of 'The Spirit,' Will was
so far ahead of his time that the rest of the comic book world had yet to catch
up and so I think that especially for the uninitiated it'll be very surprising
to see his kind of thinking and his kind of visual work.
HOW DO YOU THINK
THAT '300' WILL PLAY RIGHT NOW BECAUSE BACK WHEN YOU STARTED IT THE WORLD WAS
IN A DIFFERENT PLACE ESPECIALLY THE POLITICAL CLIMATE? DO YOU THINK THAT IT'LL
PLAY DIFFERENT NOW?
MILLER: It doesn't to me. I mean, to me it makes
it a little bit more compelling. Maybe you should ask publicity about that because
that's not my line of thinking.
DO YOU FEEL A LITTLE BIT BETTER ABOUT
YOUR PLACE IN HOLLYWOOD AT THIS POINT AND MAKING MOVIES?
MILLER:
I haven't been there in a while like I said. I feel great about Austin.
DO
YOU THINK THAT THE FANS GET YOUR TAKE ON 'ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN?'
MILLER:
I would hope not. I haven't revealed it yet.
ARE YOU BUILDING TO A BIG
REVEAL?
MILLER: It gets there. It gets there. I don't want to rush
it. It's like 'Batman: Year One.' I'm filling in massive gaps and I'm trying to
come up with a Batman at a different age than I've ever done before.
WHAT'S
AFTER 'ALL STAR' FOR YOU? ARE YOU GOING TO GET BACK TO COMICS IMMEDIATELY OR ARE
YOU GOING TO GET INVOLVED IN THE FILM WORLD?
MILLER: I've got a
bit of both. I've got a 'Batman' graphic novel that I'm drawing that's well in
progress and I've got the movie projects that we've already talked about.
IN
REGARDS TO YOUR WORK ETHICS, WHAT WOULD YOU DO BETTER.
MILLER: Well,
if I did it better my producer here would be much happier with me [Laughs]. The
thing is that once you start production, you start shooting a movie everything
else has to fall away because you've got to give it a hundred percent.
THERE'S
BEEN A LOT OF TALK THAT YOU'RE GOING TO DO THE STORY WITH NANCY CALLAHAN - WILL
YOU ALSO BE DOING THAT STORY IN COMIC BOOK FORM?
MILLER: Yes.
WHEN
THE MOVIE COMES OUT OR BEFORE?
MILLER: Whenever I can get to it.
WHAT'S
THE FIRST COMIC BOOK THAT YOU EVER BOUGHT?
MILLER: I was really
young, okay?! [Laughs] I think that it was 'Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes.'
But what I remember most vividly was an eighty page giant of 'Batman' reprints
that I found at a department store and it had all kinds of old Jerry Robinson
stuff in it like that and it looked really scary and cool. But I had to cough
up like twenty-five cents for it. So that was pretty tough.
DID THAT
SPARK YOUR INTEREST AT THAT TIME IN DRAWING OR DO YOU KNOW WHAT DID THAT FOR YOU?
MILLER:
My mother tells me that I was six years old when I told her that I was going to
be doing comic books for the rest of my life.
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME
THAT YOU SAW 'THE THREE HUNDRED SPARTANS?'
MILLER: Before I started
the book and it had a lot of interesting failures in it that helped inform the
book, but also it was the thing that inspired me to start studying the story.
So I remember it fondly. But '300' doesn't resemble that.
IS THERE ANY
OTHER BOOK THAT YOU DIDN'T WRITE THAT YOU'D LIKE TO MAKE A MOVIE OUT OF?
MILLER:
There's not a lot of work. Will is a real exception in that way in that when I
was approached to write and direct 'The Spirit' my reaction was twofold. First
I thought, 'I can't do that.' And second I thought, 'No one else gets to touch
this thing.' So I took the job.
IS ANGELINA JOLIE STILL TALKING ABOUT
IN 'SIN CITY II?'
MILLER: I sure hope so.
HAS IT BEEN DISCUSSED
WITH HER?
MILLER: I believe that Robert has talked with her. I haven't
met the lady.
WHAT CHARACTER WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HER PLAY?
MILLER:
Eva.
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