In a recent blog entry at the website for his upcoming adaptation of the beloved Will Eisner superhero comic The Spirit, director Frank Miller -- himself a much-respected comic book artist whose reputation has been decidedly mixed with the fanboy contingent since he entered the arena of filmmaking -- tries to come to terms with the debate over computer-generated imagery, and, somewhat surprisingly, decides he's having none of it in his upcoming movie.
Well, not none, exactly. Even Merchant-Ivory movies have CGI in them nowadays, and Miller says that The Spirit will only eschew the use of computers on the characters -- the rest of the film will be "abetted by abundant CGI that you will find elegant -- or invisible." Curiously, Miller claims that he came to this viewpoint after discussing it with CGI expert Stu Maschwitz (of the Orphanage, who's worked on everything from the Star Wars prequels to Iron Man). Maschwitz convinced him, Miller says, to make sure that the movie didn't "look digital", and that the entire urban landscape of New York -- where the movie is set, rather than the fictional Central City in which most Spirit stories take place -- would seem as if it were filmed in the comics' 1940s milieu.
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