The wonderful comedy duo of Lon Lugosi and Bela Chaney chimed in with some interesting notes of deadly seriousness about JAMES CAMERON. James is in the middle of a publicity tour in advance of the European release of TITANIC, and well he's got to feel that at least a hefty load has been taken off his shoulders. Of course he's still got to have TITANIC perform stellar overseas to appease the people at Fox. Though when talking to one studio type they said, "Biggest mistake Fox made was giving up a piece of Titanic to Paramount." Yup. But then if the foreign mirrors the US figures, Fox should have very little gripes. Anyway, L.L. and B.C. were chiming in on the state of affairs over at the big MGM, whose latest success, while impressive, is in the shadows of Titanic. Ironically, MGM owns Spidey and... Shucks, I'll let the duo dish out the tale...
Spider-Man is proceeding. It's been slow going, because it's something they want Cameron to do. But as you've observed, Cameron has an exclusive deal with Fox, that runs till the year 2000 we believe.
There is another issue of cost. Spider-Man could exceed Titanic in terms of technology, which obviously means greater cost, and Titanic already being the most expensive film ever made, the budget scares some people.
They may have a way around Cameron's Fox commitment though. MGM/UA will require some co-financing on the Spider-Man project, that's almost a given, and Fox has been discussed as a possibility. If Cameron is as serious about this project as he claims, and he's said quite recently in fact, that he would drop everything to do Spidey, if the legal issues were resolved, then there is the possibility that it could be done before Cameron's stab at the mysterious Avatar, or a True Lies sequel.
It doesn't appear that MGM is so anxious to do Spider-Man that they'd forgo Cameron's participation, and find someone else. We're almost certain that won't happen. Cameron has a vision for Spidey.
The first script Cameron wrote put the fear of god into some studio accountants, because it had alternate universes, and parallel dimensions, and CGI characters of such complexity, that Titanic would look like an old Godzilla movie in terms of effects budget.
The script needed some work, but the f/x were just mindblowing. The price of Cameron's participation could be a longer wait. If he's serious about doing this other stuff first, Spidey could be two years down the road, it depends on how excited he gets. He may want to do Avatar first, maybe to work out the technical bugs that will inevitably occur in the new technology. At this moment, Cameron is calling the shots, when does he want to proceed?
Well if I were Bill Mechanic and/or Tom Rothman, I'd be giving ol MGM a ring in the morning to chat about this. If you think TITANIC is big.... HA.... Spiderman would be HUGE. It would sell AROUND the world at a HUGE level. El Hombre Arana would be break the records you made this weekend. The information above is 100% reliable. It comes from an ooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllldddddddddddddddddd spy/spies that want to see MGM secure a future for themselves. Getting a piece of Spidey is like sharing ownership of the Holy Grail. With Cameron behind the camera and typewriter this project is stellar. Mark my words, the money made off of BATMAN is not what to gauge by, because most fans I know still hold that BATMAN wasn't where they wanted it, but was just close. Cameron knows what to do. If you have a chance to bargain for 50% of SPIDEY..... DO IT... DO IT NOW!!!!
Of course, I'm sure Cameron will want to rest after March for a while. He'll need to climb a few moutains and dive into that big ol trench on the ocean's darkest floor, but when he comes up for air, have Spidey ready, you shall not regret it!
