Jennifer Garner, who plays the title role in the upcoming comic-inspired movie Elektra, told SCI FI Wire that the movie remains true to the character’s dark origins, as depicted in Frank Miller’s graphic novels. Garner, best known for playing Sydney Bristow in ABC’s Alias, reprises her Elektra character from 2003’s Daredevil.

"Elektra is lethal," Garner said during a break in shooting on the film’s set, a wooded park outside Vancouver, B.C. "In Daredevil, [she] was somebody who was on the verge of being lethal who was surprised to find herself vulnerable to someone. Once her father’s killed-and this is true in the comic books, and it is in the films as well- ... there is no light for her in the world anymore."

Garner’s Elektra is ordered by a mysterious group of ninja assassins called The Hand to take out Abby, a young woman played by Kirsten Prout, and her father, Mark (ER’s Goran Visnjic). But when Elektra has a change of heart, she finds herself also targeted by The Hand and its most ruthless killers, led by Kirigi (Will Yun Lee) and the poisonous Typhoid Mary (Natassia Malthe). On a recent day of shooting in a British Columbia forest, Garner lies prostrate after receiving a deadly kiss from Typhoid. As Typhoid turns to attack Abby, Kirigi intervenes, only to be stopped by Elektra’s sage master, Stick (played by Terence Stamp). Rob Bowman (The X-Files movie) directs.

The movie picks up Elektra’s story after the events in Daredevil, Garner said. "She goes to such an incredibly dark place: ... almost dies, is resurrected, and, when Stick kicks her out of the only home she believes she has left in the world, she uses her skills to become an assassin. ... She’s a mercenary. She is out for blood. She could care less who you are, what you do, where you come from. And I have to say I love that about her, because I feel she has been driven to it, and she is hiding behind her own soullessness. And she uses it to isolate her completely and emotionally from the world and physically from the world. ... This particular story is about her not being able to deny her need for her own redemption, and it comes up and smacks her in the face, much like falling for Matt Murdock did. Except I think this is much more of a surprise, and it’s more of a twist, and it’s something she fights a lot harder than she fought falling for Matt." Elektra is currently in production, with an eye to a February 2005 release.