The Spirit is a 2008 American neo-noir superhero film written and directed by Frank Miller and starring Gabriel Macht, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson, Dan Lauria, Paz Vega, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Based on the newspaper comic strip and DC Comics character The Spirit, by Will Eisner, and produced by OddLot and Lionsgate Films,[4] it tells the story of a ghost-like superhero who defends Central City from the Octopus who competes with the superhero's childhood friend Sand Saref for the Blood of Heracles in order to become immortal.

Sand had become disenchanted with the city's corruption following the death of her father, a police officer, and left for fifteen years.

In a secret lair, the Octopus and Silken Floss discover their chest contains the Golden Fleece, not the Blood of Heracles, as expected.

Having fully regenerated, Commissioner Dolan calls The Spirit away to a case and relates Sand's history as one of the world's great jewel thieves.

After recovering, the Spirit stumbles to the city docks and collapses into the water where Lorelei: Angel of Death confronts him.

The Octopus shoots a series of progressively larger guns at the Spirit, apparently killing him, but Dolan's SWAT team storms the area and opens fire.

The Spirit rises, shown to be wearing a bullet-proof vest and blows up the Octopus with a grenade while Sand uses the Golden Fleece to protect them from the explosion.

The old flames bid each other goodbye and the Spirit convinces Dolan to release Sand in gratitude for helping to save the world.

[9] In the 1970s, director William Friedkin obtained the film rights to The Spirit and contacted Will Eisner to write a script for him.

[10] During the 1980s, Brad Bird, Jerry Rees, and producer Gary Kurtz attempted to get an animated adaptation off the ground, though studio executives praised the screenplay, they thought the film would be unmarketable, and this version was scrapped.

OddLot's producers Gigi Pritzker and Deborah Del Prete began a collaboration with Uslan, Melniker, and Maier working at Batfilm Productions, to adapt the story.

[17] Miller had initially hesitated, doubting his skill in adapting The Spirit, but ultimately embraced his first solo project as writer-director.

"Jerry" Iger; "Ditko's Speedy Delivery", named for Steve Ditko, a comic book artist and writer; and the characters Donenfeld and Liebowitz, played by Richard Portnow and Frank Miller, respectively, who are named for two of DC Comics' founders, Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz.

[18] Producer Deborah Del Prete said that Miller wanted "elements of the '40s jazz sound married with iconic heroic music and even a touch of the spaghetti western.

It's Sand Saref (Eva Mendes) who has the most elaborate of all the themes because it's based on her relationship with Denny Colt when they were in their teens, well before he became the Spirit.

He has a certain naiveté in this respect.There is an eerie, wordless soprano for Lorelei (Jaime King) that is performed by Newman's 19-year-old daughter Diana, a vocal major at the University of Southern California.

The song was originally sung and popularized by Marlene Dietrich in the film The Blue Angel (1930) and has been covered by Billie Holiday (1940), Doris Day (1961), and Sammy Davis Jr. (1962).

The film was rated PG-13 by the MPAA for "intense sequences of stylized violence and action, some sexual content, and brief nudity".

[citation needed] Released in 2,509 theaters,[3] The Spirit grossed $10.3 million in its opening four days, placing 9th in the box-office ranking for the weekend.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Though its visuals are unique, The Spirit's plot is almost incomprehensible, the dialogue is ludicrously mannered, and the characters are unmemorable.

[39] In a positive review, Ricky Bentley of the Miami Herald said, "Macht manages to meld macho with melodrama to make the Spirit come to life.

"[40] Frank Lovece of Newsday, a one-time comic-book writer, found that "gorgeous cinematography and design can't mask the hollow core and bizarre ugliness of this mishandled comics adaptation", and noted that while Eisner's own Spirit was "an average-Joe [...] in a rumpled suit—a vulnerable but insouciant everyman in humanist fables", Miller's Spirit "now has a superpower—a healing factor.

[41] Chris Barsanti of Filmcritic.com stated, "It's a frankly gorgeous effect, liberated by the fact that Miller adapted freely from Eisner's panels—the two were longtime friends—to create an organic story instead of slavishly following the master's work", and calling it "one of the year's most refreshingly fun films.

"[42] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, found the movie a "ludicrously knowing and mannered noir pastiche, full of burnt-end romance and 'style', but robotic at its core".

"[44] A. O. Scott in The New York Times summed up, "To ask why anything happens in Frank Miller's sludgy, hyper-stylized adaptation of a fabled comic book series by Will Eisner may be an exercise in futility.