Loeb will get into 'The Spirit'

Scribe brings Eisner hero to big screen

By IAN MOHR

'The Spirit'

Comicbook scribe Jeph Loeb has been tapped to pen a bigscreen version of "The Spirit," based on the hero created in 1940 by Will Eisner, for Odd Lot Entertainment and Batfilm Prods.

Project follows a masked detective who is believed dead and uses that to his advantage to fight the criminals of Central City from his base at Wildwood Cemetery.

Odd Lot's Gigi Pritzker and Deborah Del Prete will produce, along with Batfilm's Michael Uslan.

Benjamin Melniker and Steve Maier will exec produce, with F.J. DeSanto and Linda McDonough co-producing.

Eisner, whose name graces the comic industry's most prestigious award at the annual Comicon confab, passed away earlier this year after giving the pic project the thumbs up.

Loeb is a supervising producer on the WB's "Smallville." His comicbook credits include the Eisner Award winners "Batman: The Long Halloween" and "Batman: Dark Victory."