‘The Spirit’ of Eisner and Lionsgate

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I had the honor of interviewing Will Eisner once. I was a student at the University of Florida and, after being named the editor-in-chief of the large and powerful campus newspaper there, I decided I would reward myself with a splashy vanity project. So I gave myself three full pages of space and devoted them all to a profile of Eisner, who was living further south, down in Tamarac, at the time. This was almost 20 years ago now but I still remember how Eisner -- after I told him that I was a student -- began to speak with such passion about teachers, schools, the years of life spent learning, the entire aura of a focused campus life. These were the days, by the way, when the aging artist flew up to New York every week to teach at a prestigious school. It wasn’t for the money, believe me.

Anyway, I was thinking about that today when I heard about a pretty nifty move by Tim Palen, Sarah Greenberg and their marketing team over at Lionsgate. They’ve reached out to art schools around the country and they’re using student work to promote ‘The Spirit,’ which is due on Christmas Day from Odd Lot and Lionsgate. This past weekend down at Comic-Con International, the first student-designed campaign hit the streets with these cool posters you see above. I saw them everywhere -- but not for long, all the fans gleefully snatched them. They were the handiwork of students from the Art Institute of California-San Diego. It’s a great idea and I can tell you it’s one that Eisner would have absolutely adored.

To read a lot more about this program and the schools involved, you can find the press release after the jump.

-- Geoff Boucher

Image courtesy of Lionsgate

LIONSGATE AND ODD LOT CELEBRATE THE SPIRIT WITH LAUNCH OF ART SCHOOL
PROGRAM WITH NINE ART SCHOOLS NATIONWIDE

First Student-Designed Campaign, From Art Institute of California-San
Diego, To Be Unveiled At This Weekend’s Comic-Con In San Diego

Frank Miller’s Adaptation Of Classic Will Eisner Comic, THE SPIRIT
starring Gabriel Macht, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson, Paz Vega, Dan Lauria,
Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson as ‘The Octopus’ Opens
Christmas Day, 2008

SANTA MONICA, CA (July 24, 2008) - LIONSGATE(r) (NYSE: LGF), a leading
next generation filmed entertainment studio, today announced that it
will partner with nine prestigious arts schools nationwide in THE SPIRIT
Art School Program, which will present nine student-designed advertising
campaigns for the upcoming film THE SPIRIT, written for the screen and
directed by Frank Miller, creator of 300 and SIN CITY. The campaigns
will be unveiled throughout the summer in the individual cities that are
home to the nine schools. THE SPIRIT Art School Program will launch this
weekend at the annual Comic-Con convention in San Diego, when The
Art Institute of California-San Diego introduces its campaign. The
announcement was made jointly by Lionsgate Co-Presidents of Theatrical
Marketing Sarah Greenberg and Tim Palen, and Deborah Del Prete and Gigi
Pritzker, co-principals of Odd Lot Entertainment and production partners
with Lionsgate on THE SPIRIT.

‘We are very excited and proud to be partnering with these nine superb
arts educators on this innovative program,’ said Greenberg and Palen.
‘Will Eisner and his masterpiece, THE SPIRIT, were great influences to
me. THE SPIRIT Art School Program gives students at these nine
institutions a terrific showcase for their work, and it’s also a
wonderful way to continue the cross-generational exchange of ideas that
is so important to every art form.’ said Frank Miller.

The college-level facilities participating in THE SPIRIT Art School
Program are: The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise in Los
Angeles; School of the Art Institute of Chicago; The Art Institute of
New York; The Art Institute of California - San Francisco; The Art
Institute of California - San Diego, Miami Ad School; The Art Institute
of Washington; The Art Institute of Philadelphia; and The New England
Institute of Art. The schools were provided with creative assets from
the Lionsgate marketing portfolio, and were given wide artistic latitude
in interpreting THE SPIRIT to design a campaign that was pertinent and
unique to their cities. The program is spearheaded by Danielle Della
Corna, Director of Media and Promotion for Lionsgate.

The first of THE SPIRIT Art School Program advertising campaigns will be
unveiled at this weekend’s Comic-Con, the annual celebration of all
things comic-oriented. The Art Institute of California-San Diego has
created a series of specially designed SPIRIT cups, which will be used
at all the Comic-Con concession stands. The cups bear the unique
signatures of the films four femmes fatales: Silken Floss, Sand Saref,
Ellen Dolan and Lorelei Rox. And San Diegans will learn that they are
now being protected by the masked crusader as SPIRIT Neighborhood Watch
signs are posted in strategic locations around the city.

SYNOPSIS

Adapted from the legendary comic strip, THE SPIRIT is a classic
action-adventure-romance written for the screen and directed by
genre-twister FRANK MILLER (creator of 300 and SIN CITY). It is the
story of a former rookie cop who returns mysteriously from the dead as
the SPIRIT (Gabriel Macht) to fight crime from the shadows of Central
City. His arch-enemy, the OCTOPUS (Samuel L. Jackson) has a different
mission: he’s going to wipe out Spirit’s beloved city as he pursues his
own version of immortality. The Spirit tracks this cold-hearted killer
from Central City’s rundown warehouses, to the damp catacombs, to the
windswept waterfront ... all the while facing a bevy of beautiful women
who either want to seduce, love or kill our masked crusader. Surrounding
him at every turn are ELLEN DOLAN (Sarah Paulson), the whip-smart
girl-next-door; SILKEN FLOSS (Scarlett Johansson), a punk secretary and
frigid vixen; PLASTER OF PARIS (Paz Vega), a murderous French nightclub
dancer; LORELEI (Jaime King), a phantom siren; and MORGENSTERN (Stana
Katic), a sexy young cop.

Then of course, there’s SAND SAREF (Eva Mendes), the jewel thief with
dangerous curves. She’s the love of his life turned bad. Will he save
her or will she kill him?

In the vein of BATMAN BEGINS and SIN CITY, THE SPIRIT takes us on a
sinister, gut-wrenching ride with a hero who is born, murdered and born
again.

Odd Lot Entertainment and Lionsgate are production partners on the film.
Odd Lot’s Deborah Del Prete and Gigi Pritzker are producing along with
Michael Uslan of Batfilm Productions Inc. Batfilm co-founder Benjamin
Melniker and Steven Maier are executive producing, along with Odd Lot’s
Bill Lischak and Lionsgate’s Michael Burns and Michael Paseornek. Odd
Lot’s Linda McDonough and Batfilm/Comic Book Movies’ F.J. DeSanto are
co-producing.

Update: This press release had one of the school’s names listed incorrectly in one spot, I fixed it after hearing from the publicist.