Frank Miller Now Producing Commercials for Gucci?

Last week Gucci debuted the trailer for the TV spot advertising its new fragrance, Gucci Guilty, and revealed that the commercial is being directed by none other than Frank Miller, legendary comic book writer.

Frank Miller is an odd choice to direct any TV commercial, but he's a really odd choice to direct a commercial for a product aimed at women. 

This is not meant to be a Frank Miller bashing.  Gfest loves Frank.  We even love All Star Batman and Robin despite the fact most people hate it.  But let's be fair, Frank Miller doesn't have the greatest track record of portraying women in a particularly postive fashion.

Take the stories selected for the Sin City movie as an example. The only woman who is not a prostitute or a stripper is a lesbian parole officer who likes to walk around her apartment naked. Elijah Wood amputates her arm and eats it in front of her. She is then gunned down by corrupt cops.

Frank Miller introduced us to Catwoman as a former prostitute. He created the first female Robin and then Elektra simply to eventually torture and kill them. Wonder Woman in The Dark Knight Strikes Again is mostly just around for Superman to have sex with.

 

Often, it seems that the only woman Frank Miller feels safe writing is one who is dependent on a man for her survival.

 

The trailer for Gucci’s ad clearly borrows a lot from Miller’s Sin City playbook: iconic but vaguely laid out cityscapes; black and white world with occasional arresting spots of color; movie stars, bars, and fast cars.  Its hard to argue that the "look" of the commercial is very cool.

 

The commercial stars Chris Evans and Evan Rachel Wood. The full-length video will make its debut at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, so we'll just have to wait until then to see if Frank Miller has it within himself to produce something that women will be drawn to, instead of insulted by.   

 

Batman Year One Animated Movie is Coming!

According to Comics Continuum, "Batman: Year One" is being adapted as one of Warner Home Video's DC Universe animated movies. Sam Liu was cited as the director of the project, who also directed Hulk Vs., "Planet Hulk," "Superman/Batman: Public Enemies" and co-directed "Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths."

Bruce Timm earlier this year hinted that we would be seeing more of the animated films featuring Batman and Superman because sales of Wonder Woman and Green Lantern First Flight were a bit underwhelming.  An adaptation of "Batman: Under The Red Hood" is already slated to be the next DC animated movie.

"Batman: Year One" was published by DC Comics in 1987. The story took place in the early days of Batman's career.  The story is considered one of the most influential Batman stories ever, with "Batman: The Long Halloween" serving as an unofficial sequel.

First Look at Frank Miller's 300 Prequel

Frank Miller is making making Xerxes, a graphic novel preview to 300.  The picture to the right is the title character; the comic will be a six-issues mini-series released by Dark Horse in 2011.

According to Topless Robot,  the story will be the same heft as 300 but it cover a much, much greater span of time -- it's 10 years, not three days," Miller told the Los Angeles Times this week. "This is a more complex story. The story is so much larger. The Spartans in 300 were being enclosed by the page as the world got smaller. This story has truly vast subjects. The Athenian naval fleet, for instance, is a massive artistic undertaking and it dwarfed by the Persian fleet, which is also shown in this story. The story has elements of espionage, too, and it's a sweeping tale with gods and warriors." He also said that while Xerxes is the title character, the protagonist is Themistocles, the famed Athenian politician and general.

Gfest doesn't know if this is going to be a really good story or really, really bad story.   Seems more designed for Hollywood than comic book fans but we'll reserve judgment since it's Frank Miller.