The (Lost) Frank Miller ‘Elektra’ Screenplay?
by Koom Kankesan
I recently discovered that Frank Miller wrote a screenplay focusing solely on Elektra. I found it here and the script is undated but I’d hazard that it was written in the eighties based on the information posted by this Reddit user who claims another version was written after Miller’s version and that Oliver Stone signed on to direct the film with a release date in 1990 with Gabrielle Reece playing the lead. Obviously, the Oliver Stone project never went ahead and instead we got Jennifer Garner later playing Elektra in Daredevil (2003) and Elektra (2005). Though Miller’s script is simply titled ‘Elektra’, it is undeniably his adaptation of the 1986 Epic Comics limited series Elektra Assassin which was produced by himself in collaboration with artist Bill Sienkiewicz.
That being said, the screenplay, though it bears many commonalities with Elektra Assassin, has significant differences. Being an immense fan of Miller’s work from the eighties, I read through the screenplay with relish and it gave me my Miller fix that I was craving. Here are my take aways after reading the script.
Certain elements like the fall of the Soviet Union, fear of nuclear war, and the mention of smart bombs makes me guess this might have been written in the very late eighties. Stick and his confederates make appearances but these are very brief. Unlike in the comic, there is no mention of Daredevil or Matt Murdock at all. Elektra’s dad is no longer a diplomat but a gifted fighter who purposely begins Elektra’s training at a very young age.
Some familiar names from Elektra Assassin that show up here are Presidente Huevos, Ambassador Reich, Perry and Garrett, Beaker, and of course the Kennedy-style politician Ken Wind. Unfortunately, there is no Chastity or Nick Fury. Garret, a comedic foil who makes the comics very entertaining, is written in a very serious and earnest way into the screenplay and his character is much more standard and ‘cookie cutter.’ The main villain is Kirigi, an unstoppable brute and member of the ninja group The Hand whom Elektra faced more than once in Miller and Klaus Janson‘s original Daredevil run (which precedes the Elektra Assassin) limited series. Kirigi isn’t a character in the Elektra Assassin comics and in the original Daredevil run, he didn’t really talk so perhaps more than anything, his name is simply lifted for the purposes of fashioning a ‘bad guy’ for the movie.
This brings us the question of whether this is a great screenplay despite my having enjoyed reading this? I don’t think it would have necessarily made a great movie as the characters don’t have the same depth or structure as the Daredevil/Elektra/Bullseye/Kingpin framework that made the best issues of the original run so great. The most dark, funny, and abstract aspects of Elektra Assassin are curbed here in order to make Elektra a more palatable heroine. This is geared towards making a movie, not an indie comic book, but Miller doesn’t shy away from darkness.
However, the absurdist and abstract tone in Elektra Assassin is missing which is a real pity because though the limited series used very broad portrayals of characters, the weirdness of it (like Elektra’s odd biofunctions or the woman whose intense feelings of love fought with Elektra’s mind control) and the mystery worked really well around the broad plot/characters. Here in the screenplay, Elektra must be too much like a conventional hero, despite the violence. The stuff with the Beast and the Hand and Kirigi is nowhere near as mysterious and entrancing as it is in the comics and that’s too bad, I think.
Still, this screenplay is definitely worth reading if you want a classic Miller fix, as I often do! It joins other Miller screenplays in the dark drawer of history such as his unproduced screenplay for Batman: Year One (aspects from this were pilfered for the movies that have been produced, including the recent movie starring Robert Pattinson) and his Daredevil treatment which was eventually used as the basis to create the comics miniseries Daredevil: The Man Without Fear. Miller has had some cinematic success and screenwriting being produced regarding properties involving Robocop, Sin City, 300, and The Spirit but the classic work and characters he’s perhaps most famous for have eluded him shepherding ideas to the big screen.
