The Spirit is the Frank Miller live-action film version of the classic 1940s Will Eisner newspaper strip and subsequent comic book series.

Opening on Dec. 25, the movie arrives with lots of anticipation and a question; as in can Miller translate the 1940s noir images onto the big screen? At least Miller gets The Spirit. He was an Eisner friend. And his resume suits the challenge. Plus his intention to shoot the movie in the fancy Sin City CGI style made sense to just about everybody.

After all, Miller co-directed and co-wrote the digital Sin City with Robert Rodriguez and wrote the popular graphic novels Sin City and 300 and restored Batman as the brooding Dark Knight in comics which inspired Christopher Nolan’s hit movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

However, The Spirit will be Miller’s movie coming out party, so naturally he seemed a little anxious Saturday at New York’s Waldorf Astoria press conference.

Also attending were key cast members. There was Gabriel Macht who plays Denny Colt, a cop who returns from the dead as The Spirit crime fighter. Veteran Samuel L. Jackson showed up. He’s The Octopus, the bad guy determined to kill anyone who gets in his way.

Scarlett, the starlett, Johansson showed up too. She portrays Silken Floss, Octopus’ femme fatale secretary. And Eva Mendes was there, as well. She plays Sand Saref, a jewel thief who comes with complications and past.

Johanson confessed she was never a comic book fan but was intrigued by her character and the fact that Miller was involved with the project.. The actress noted that she was a fan of Sin City and 300 and had wanted to work with Miller for a while.

When Miller heard Johansson was interested in a Spirit part he made Floss younger and gave the character more to do in the movie. “When he decided to expand the role,” said Johansson, “I was super excited to be a part of it.”

As for the sexy 1940s femme fatale aspects of Silken Floss and Sand Saref, and the costumes revealing too much, both Mendes and Johansson said they embraced the images.

“If there had been no brains behind the body,” maintained Mendes of her character, “I would have had trouble with that. But there was.”

Johansson agreed that looking great was a positive thing not exploitive. “It’s not such a bad thing,” she said. “She’s this great brain who looks fantastic in a short skirt.”

Meanwhile, Johansson and the movie hinted that Silken Floss might have a more prominent role in the next Spirit movie. — if there is one. “That would be all right with me,” she said of starring in a potential sequel.

During a panel at the New York Comic Convention today, Marvel Comics announced that they will be working with Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science fiction writer Orson Scott Card to adapt two of his most acclaimed novels, Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow, into comic books later this year.

Ender’s Game, a cult-favorite novel about a child prodigy named Ender recruited to help fight an alien army, and Ender’s Shadow, a concurrent book focused on another young soldier, will launch as separate comics in late 2008, with the first Ender’s Game collection due out in summer 2009.

Like Marvel’s other literary crossovers, the Ender’s Game comics aim not only to woo new readers into comic stores, but also to continue the push of graphic novels and trade paperback collections into traditional bookstores and libraries where they can reach a more mainstream audience.

Card, who also currently scripts the Ultimate Iron Man superhero comic with Marvel, says he was eager to pursue a comic book adaptation, but that the rights were previously bound up in film deal for the two novels, which were optioned by Warner Brothers, the parent company of DC Comics.

“The moment I got the comic book and game rights extracted from the movie option deal, I let Marvel and other [publishers] know about the availability,” says Card. “I truly was open-minded about who would end up doing the books, [but] Marvel got there first, with a terrific, ambitious plan for Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow.”

The debut of “The Incredible Hulk” trailer released Wednesday night comes on the background of some dissensions between the lead actor Edward Norton and the Marvel Studios execs, over the film’s final cut, Deadline Hollywood reports.

Insiders say that Norton “was promised tremendous involvement and access” into the movie, and now there is “a lot of posturing going on between Edward’s camp and Marvel over how you edit the final version.”

The sources, which were not named, have also revealed that Norton has been meeting with Marvel Studios Chairman David Maisel, Marvel Studios president of production Kevin Feige, and director Louis Leterrier, and they are all trying to “reach an amicable resolution” to this feud.

Norton rewrote the scrip of the $150+ million production, and he is also the lead actor playing the role of Bruce Banner, which has been previously portrayed by Eric Bana in 2003.

The movie is due to be released on June 13 this year.

Norton has expressed his views as far as editing is concerned with other films, such as “Frieda” and “Keeping the Faith.” “[…] to me the whole thing was to envision it in multiple parts. We left a lot out on purpose. It’s definitely intended as chapter one,” Norton said in an interview earlier this year.

“The Incredible Hulk” is directed by Louis Leterrier, and is said to be more action-oriented than Ang Lee’s 2003 flick.

Incredible Hulk Trailer With Ed Norton