The Spirit is a 1987 American made-for-television action-adventure film based on the comic book character The Spirit by Will Eisner. The film went through a 10 year development cycle when producer Paul Aratow acquired the rights to the character in the mid 70s and began development on a TV movie adaptation to be produced and directed by William Friedkin for NBC as a pilot for an ongoing television series until development stalled in 1980. After an attempt at an animated film version produced by Gary Kurtz and directed by Brad Bird also failed to emerge from development, Aratow reacquired the rights and set up the pilot at ABC with director Michael Schultz and writer Steven E. de Souza. While initially intended as pilot for an ongoing television series for ABC's 1986 Fall Schedule, a change in management saw the pilot shelved until the producers managed to circulate a petition at the 1986 San Diego Comic-Con with several prominent signatories convincing ABC to air the pilot albeit with muted promotion and no chance of a series pickup.
Plot In rural East Armfit, Oregon, police officer Denny Colt rushes to the aid of his friend and mentor William Sevrin, who has been attacked and had his manuscript, The Roxton Connection: Art Crime of the Century, burned by an unknown assailant. Upon arrival, he is told by a fatally wounded Sevrin that the only one who knew about his manuscript besides Denny was Simon Teasdale. Traveling to Central City, Denny seeks out Commissioner Dolan at a fundraising event, and after meeting with Dolan's daughter, Ellen, and widowed wealthy philanthropist P'Gell Roxton during his chase of a purse snatcher, Denny approaches Commissioner Dolan about his questions regarding Teasdale. Commissioner Dolan dismisses Denny's inquiries due to Teasdale's standing in the community, with Denny stating he intends to continue his investigation undeterred. Upon departure, he confronts a young street-smart child named Eubie who is hocking stolen tape decks to crippled children at the event, with Denny letting Eubie off with a stern warning.
Denny's investigation takes him to the Roxton Museum to confront Teasdale, who is the curator of the museum. When Denny inquires about the art crime, Sevrin's manuscript, Teasdale denies any knowledge of it and has museum security forcefully eject Denny from the museum. Outside the museum, Denny is approached by a teamster named Bruno, who claims to have knowledge of Teasdale's illegal activities and arranges a rendezvous with Denny later that night at Pier 10. Denny comes to Pier 10, and upon Bruno's arrival, Denny is shot by Bruno and left for dead, falling into the ocean.
Denny's bloodstained badge is found by the city's police later that night, with Commissioner Dolan confirming Denny's identity and lamenting his inaction during their meeting earlier that day. Later at Wildwood Cemetery, Eubie confronts his business partner Stevie over the tape decks that Eubie thought were factory seconds when they were, in fact, stolen. The two are startled by groaning sounds and a shambling figure, which causes Stevie to flee, but Eubie soon discovers it's Denny, who is still alive despite his gunshot. As a storm gathers, Eubie takes Denny inside a mausoleum and administers first aid to Denny. Eubie tells Denny he needs a hospital, but Denny rejects the notion and tells Eubie to instead bring a doctor to him that he can trust to not let anyone know he's alive.
Sometime later, Denny and Eubie observe Denny's funeral service, which is attended by the commissioner and Ellen Dolan. After the service breaks, Denny tells Eubie of his plan to use his presumed death to confront criminals when they least expect it and dons a domino mask to emphasize his point. Denny begins taking down criminals in his new guise as a masked crimefighter, with the newspapers now referring to him as The Spirit. After establishing himself, Denny visits Commissioner Dolan in the guise of The Spirit and reveals his true identity to Commissioner Dolan's shock. Denny informs Commissioner Dolan that he intends to continue his investigation into Teasdale. Commissioner Dolan tells Denny that he looked into Teasdale after Denny supposedly died and was unable to find any evidence of wrongdoing, but Denny suggests that if Teasdale hasn't been detected, he may be involved in forgeries. The meeting is interrupted by the arrival of Ellen, who is startled by Denny's appearance as The Spirit briefly knocks him unconscious, but is soon informed of the situation by the Commissioner and Denny before Denny departs with his secret intact from Ellen.
The next day, as Ellen and P'Gell socialize while a radio report of The Spirit's latest escapade is recounted, Ellen lets slip details that lead P'Gell to believe she's met The Spirit. Later that night, The Spirit breaks into a plating firm to investigate, and following a misunderstanding with Ellen in which The Spirit tells her to contact her father, The Spirit witnesses Teasdale's forgery operations, and a fight ensues between The Spirit and the henchmen led by Bruno. The Spirit is knocked unconscious after the fight and is placed on a platform that slowly descends into an acid vat as the henchmen depart. As Ellen prepares to leave, she notices all the lights in the building go dark and rushes back to investigate, rescuing The Spirit and enlisting the help of a sympathetic cabbie. The two regroup at Commissioner Dolan's residence to discuss what The Spirit witnessed,d including Denny Colt's murderer working at the firm. Ellen is disbelieving of The Spirit's accusations against Teasdale.
The following day, The Spirit disguises himself as an elderly scholar and meets with P'Gell and Teasdale, and lets slip that he has a copy of Sevrin's Manuscript. Upon The Spirit's departure, P'Gell sees Teasdale out, and it's revealed that P'Gell is actually the forger and is Bruno's Girlfriend. The Spirit returns to Wildwood Cemetery and sends Eubie to deliver a note to the commissioner at the museum party while he deals with Bruno and two of P'Gell's henchmen. The fight is interrupted with the arrival of P'Gell, who reveals herself as the mastermind, shoots The Spirit with a tranquilizer gun, and takes him to the museum basement to have him interrogated over the manuscripts' location. The interrogation renders The Spirit unconscious, and P'Gell berates Bruno for killing Sevrin when he was only supposed to steal the Manuscript. The Spirit unconsciously lets the word "Ellen" slip, prompting P'Gell to confront Ellen at the party.
P'Gell captures Ellen and places her in an iron maiden, which prompts The Spirit to reveal that the manuscript was a ruse. Self-assured, P'Gell directs her men to set up a bomb that will cover up her forgery efforts by destroying the entire museum and the duplicates within. The Spirit manages to escape his bonds, jams the iron maiden, and sets out to stop P'Gell and her men's plan. The Spirit deactivates the first two bombs and subdues P'Gell's henchmen, leading to a skirmish between The Spirit and Bruno to get to the final bomb, with The Spirit ultimately prevailing. The police arrive at P'Gell's estate, unaware that she has already fled with the help of her butler, Ricardo. At The Spirit's cemetery hideout, Ellen and The Spirit enjoy a drink, optimistically discussing how the joint efforts of Lloyd's of London and Interpol will see the stolen artifacts recovered, with The Spirit confident that he and P'Gell will cross paths again.
Cast
Sam J. Jones as Denny Colt/The Spirit Nana Visitor as Ellen Dolan Bumper Robinson as Eubie Garry Walberg as Commissioner Dolan Daniel Davis as Simon Teasdale Laura M. Robinson as P'Gell Roxton Philip Baker Hall as William Sevrin
Production Development at NBC Producer Paul Aratow, a professed fan of the character, first acquired an option on Will Eisner's The Spirit in 1975 and not long thereafter began development with NBC on a TV movie adaptation of the property with William Friedkin slated to produce and direct the film that would serve as a pilot for a proposed series. For Friedkin's incarnation of the project Burt Reynolds and Flip Wilson were in negotiations to play the characters of Denny Colt/The Spirit and Ebony White respectively. Friendkin and NBC's iteration of the project ultimately never came to fruition with Friedkin attempting to develop treatments with writers such as Pete Hamill, Jules Feiffer, Harlan Ellison, and Eisner himself with Friedkin unable to find a treatment he liked and eventually leaving the project while Aratow would release The Spirit rights to Columbia Pictures in 1980. According to Einser's publisher, Denis Kitchen of Kitchen Sink Press, Eisner never had any serious desire to see The Spirit adapted and was just content to collect checks for the options. According to Ellison, Friedkin may have become soured on the project when Ellison praised his film Sorcerer which had become a massive Box-office failure that derailed Friedkin's career and cost him several jobs and during their conversation Friedkin referred to the film as "a piece of shit". When Ellison countered Friedkin's stance by calling the film the best film Friedkin ever made this led to an argument between the two that got so heated that it emptied the restaurant in which they were seated and shortly thereafter Friedkin abandoned the project.
Attempt at animated feature film
In the 1980s, animator Brad Bird was working at Walt Disney Animation Studios and disillusioned with the current state of animation as he and other CalArts alums working at the studio felt nothing worthwhile had been done with character animation for the past two decades. Bird had become a fan of The Spirit due to its cinematic style as well as Eisner's more cartoonish character designs in comparison to other superhero works, and with the help of what few CalArts alums he could entice, including Glen Keane and Jerry Rees, Bird and his crew established an ad hoc studio called Visions Animation + Filmworks and produced a pitch trailer over the course of five months in their off hours from Disney for the purpose of showcasing it to potential producers. The Spirit pitch trailer would later be incorporated into Bird's sample film reel he called A Portfolio of Projects which included other projects such as Family Dog. Freelance publicist Steven Paul Leiva, who specialized in animators and had represented clients such as Chuck Jones, Bill Melendez, and Richard Williams, had also grown frustrated with the current state of American animation and was looking to move from publicity to producing. While attending Filmex at the Cinerama Dome in 1980, Leiva was shown the pencil test trailer Bird and his team had produced by a colleague and was impressed not only with how efficiently it told The Spirit's origin and tone of the story, but also said it had the finest human animation he'd ever seen and joined the project as a producer.