Frank Miller films the comic “Corto Maltese”: a clash of two opposing spirits

First of all, it’s good news that the successful cartoonist Frank Miller (“Sin City”, “300”) is adapting the comic “Corto Maltese” by his Italian colleague Hugo Pratt. It’s supposed to be a six-part television series, and the attention in advance is good for everyone. Frank Miller, who recently drew attention to himself with negative headlines, and “Corto Maltese”, a classic like no other.

Hugo Pratt’s mammoth work, published in twelve volumes, over a thousand pages in total, is the story of a seafarer in the turmoil of the first half of the 20th century. Umberto Eco paid homage to him, calling him “challenging reading” in contrast to the social utopias of Friedrich Engels. The French newspaper Le Monde included it in its list of 100 books of the 20th century, along with Asterix and Tintin, with Hemingway, Kafka and Rushdie.

“Corto Maltese” was considered unfilmable for a long time

With its often surreal overtones, extensive dream sequences and the multitude of locations around the world, “Corto Maltese” was long considered unfilmable, at least as far as live-action films are concerned. At the beginning of the millennium, an animated film produced a solid result in terms of implementation, but the following animated series with much sloppy animation did not.

What Frank Miller intends to do and how he thinks it will be implemented: we don’t know. The only thing that is certain is that he will be responsible for writing and directing the six-part series in cooperation with the French media giant Studiocanal.

Miller, author and illustrator of epoch-making comics such as “Sin City” and “The Dark Knight Returns”, has, like Eco, repeatedly paid homage to the sailor in his works. Within the Batman cosmos, he named a South American island after the character, who since then has not only appeared occasionally in his own home. The island was subsequently featured in Tim Burton’s first Batman film, in the various DC Super Hero television series, and in other authors’ comics.

Miller himself is a declared lover of Pratt’s comic, which he says he found while traveling in Italy. So what should go wrong? Like this: Miller also loves graphic novel guru Will Eisner’s “The Spirit.” He filmed it in 2008, and that was not only a huge flop, but also a failure artistically. Miller turned Eisner’s hard-nosed, lyrical-tinged crime comedy into an involuntary comedy, more Three Stooges than Will Eisner. As if he had never read any of the comics the film is based on.

Fascism as a response to Islamism

After that, Miller made a name for himself with a highly racist graphic novel: “Holy Terror” reduced Islam to shrapnel, which he responded to with kicking boots and heroines in skin-tight latex costumes. Fascism as a response to Islamism.

Miller later regretted the volume, as did his comments on “Occupy Wall Street,” whose activists he flooded with a tirade, of which terms like “rapist” and “scum” were the nicest.

Can you entrust this man with a film project? Sin City 2, the sequel to Roberto Rodriguez’s successful film adaptation of Miller’s graphic novel series, was also a flop. Unlike the first part, Miller was much more involved in the second part as co-director, screenwriter and producer.

Miller’s heyday was in the ’80s and ’90s, when he drew comics that shaped the medium’s path. After that, he attracted attention as an unsuccessful director, and as a right-wing rowdy, whose world seemed to become increasingly narrow-minded. The quasi-fascist violent orgies like “300” and “Holy Terror” drew.

Miller’s worldview is thus the opposite of Pratt’s worldview in “Corto Maltese”, which was always defined by breadth and openness. This contrast will either ignite a creative fire or it will become a huge mess.

Corto Maltese is published by Schreiber & Leser. Frank Miller’s complete works (including the must-reads) are published by Cross Cult and Panini. Disclosure: The author translated Frank Miller’s “Hard Boiled” into German.

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