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>From the Chicago Tribune Frank Miller gets his 'revenge' in Hollywood By Geoff Boucher Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times May 16 2007 HOLLYWOOD -- Frank Miller, his pale hands wrapped around a cane and the smoke from his cigarette swirling beneath the brim of his Homburg, sat at the poolside bar at the W Hotel in L.A.'s Westwood area and watched the swimsuits saunter by. "I'm married to New York," he said between sips of a fizzy Red Bull cocktail. "But there's something to be said about Los Angeles too." Miller arrived at the W a month and a half ago with a one-week reservation, but last week the L.A. fling was still going and he still was living out of a suitcase filled with black clothes. The reason is that Miller, the most important comic book artist of the last 25 years, is enjoying his moment in the Hollywood sun. On the money There was, of course, the record-breaking March box office of "300," a lovingly faithful adaptation of Miller's bloody 1998 graphic novel, but there's also the two sequels to "Sin City" now in the pipeline and the Batman project now being filmed in London that borrows its title from Miller's 1986 masterpiece, "The Dark Knight Returns." "They finally got the title right," Miller said with a pretend sneer. "I was wondering when that would happen." Like most stars of the comic book community, he had become accustomed to be treated like a valet by Hollywood -- 'Hey, kid, thanks for the keys and the vehicle, here's a couple of bucks' -- and then forced to watch the studios wreck everything on screen. The 1990s Batman movies, for instance, would not have happened without Miller's work, but they often ignored or trampled his contributions to the character. On two "RoboCop" films, meanwhile, Miller was hired as a screenwriter, but the efforts fell flat. Then Elektra, a beloved character he created, tanked badly on the screen in the hands of others. Now there's a sweet satisfaction in the fact that the new Hollywood approach is to hire fan-boy directors and show fawning respect for the source material. "Sin City's" Robert Rodriguez even insisted on sharing director credits with Miller on those films, and that led directly to a somewhat shocking development: Miller has now been tapped to write and direct his own film based on Will Eisner's classic noir hero "The Spirit." Asked about the change of heart in town, Miller smiled like the Catwoman who ate the canary. "It's gone from being an abusive relationship to a torrid affair. And it is very satisfying. I think I have everybody fooled now." Miller, 50, was given a hero's welcome at the premiere of "300" in early March and arrived at the glitzy after-party to find movie stars eager to shake his hand. He lingered in town to talk to actors about key roles in "The Spirit" and found that the hotel bar was a great place to write the screenplay. He's been soaking in the L.A. scene and taking meetings, among them a giddy visit to the office of Richard Donner, director of the 1978 "Superman" as well as the "Lethal Weapon" films, where Miller tried to soak in some lessons about directing. Donner, though, came from a moviemaking era when Hollywood took an amused and parental approach to comics fare, and while Miller reveres the veteran filmmaker, he also said he will be making movies that are as wild and fire-breathing as the modern graphic novel. He made his name with grisly and highly sophisticated revenge fantasies drawn in an alternately brash and shadowy style that seems like "Escape From New York" as reimagined by Akira Kurosawa. He prides himself on approaching his easel with a tough-guy swagger. "I am going to do things my way. It's the only way I know how, and it's how I got here. They finally realized that my vision is the way to do it. And I couldn't agree more." Miller was born in Maryland and raised in Vermont but, mesmerized by comics and films, he was eager to get to New York -- "The New York I saw on 'Kojak,' that's what I wanted to draw" -- where he could get the pavement and excitement under his feet. He got to New York by 21, and within three years he was a fan favorite with a style that was jolting. It was dark and gritty, with bold brushwork and empty spaces that defied the marketplace conventions of the time. That era too belonged to superhero teams with cosmic adventures and bulging, spandex-clad anatomies that defied physics, but Miller was writing and drawing violent operettas for the mean streets with mere mortals such as Daredevil and Batman, who have no superpowers. Miller's characters are always on the hunt for redemption or, more often, revenge with extreme prejudice. There's a case to be made that Miller is coming to Hollywood with a similar chip on his shoulder. There's also an argument to be made that he came here looking for a fresh audience. For a guy that could do no wrong in the comics world, Miller has been a little shaky with the old fans in recent years. In 2002, he finally relented to massive appetite for a sequel to "The Dark Knight Returns," and most reviews ranged from disappointment to blistering attack. "A total mess of a book," one critic moaned. Scattered parody To many, the plot, the exaggerated art and the computer color effects made for a scattered parody of the bracing original. Others, though, saw a punk-rock statement; the Comics Journal, for instance, dubbed it "gloriously trashy." Miller is clearly sensitive about the sniping. "It was caricature," he said, "and if you don't get it, I can't help that." He also wrote a "Batman & Robin" series that was similarly criticized as stilted, indulgent and too winking (not to mention misogynistic -- but that label has been applied to a significant portion of his work, especially the gleefully prurient "Sin City" books and film). Copyright © 2007, The Chicago Tribune Click here to find out more! Copyright 2007 Metromix.com
