All Aboard The Spirit Train

Eva Mendes has been cast as Sand Saref in The Spirit. Saref was a relatively late addition to the strip and, for my money, one of the least interesting female characters.

I'd always assumed Ellen Dolan would have been heavily featured in Miller's adaptation, but if she's in the film at all, she's yet to be cast. Maybe the story will be set during her term as mayor? Or maybe she'll just be absent without explanation?

I do expect any number of characters to be missing, or at least heavily changed. Ebony White in particular who, despite actually being quite a well rounded character overall would probably draw fire for his more obviously 'minstrel' -like characteristics.

Beyond casting, it has also been announced that Bill Pope is to shoot the film. Pope's an often good but but wildly inconsistent cinematographer so I'm hardly excited by the news, but at least he has plenty of comic-book-look credentials having shot Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3 and Darkman.