Hey folks, Harry here. I've been hearing a lot about SPIDER-MAN today... Apparently over at Mr. Showbiz they have had interviews with Heath Ledger (saying basically that he doesn't want to become typecast as Spidey this early in his career and that a 3 film commitment is too much at this stage) and with Freddie Prinze Jr (who is apparently fond of calling Stan Lee, Stanley, and continues his hopefully failed attempt to end up in the suit.). However, there was no real news other than the stories we already knew. Until this came in from the License Show in New York which is, of course, having a massive promotion for SPIDER-MAN... along with everything else. Here's that report...
Hi Harry,
Mad Aris here, long time reader and fan. Im not quite sure how much of a scoop this is but it's certainly interesting info. I just got back from the Jacob Javitz Center here in NYC where there is an enormous toy license show going on for a few days. I gave a presentation and afterwards there was FREE BEER and an opportunity to walk around and check out the many booths set up by companies to sell merchandise for such properties as TOMB RAIDER, JURASSIC PARK 3, X MEN etc. I stumbled upon a large MARVEL booth which was hyping SPIDERMAN (november 2001!) by showing an in depth personal interview with SAM RAIMI-it was cool as hell and basically this is what he said....
Every young actor you could think of has contacted raimi for an audition for the role but noone has signed on. the actor will have to be skinny and NOT TOO MUSCULAR because this spidey will be sleek and nimble like your average teenager.
Raimi said he is developing new FX technology for this movie because he feels the other superhero movies have been stagnant and stiff and he wants spidey to be, and i quote him, "like a ballerina in the air, graceful and practically floating from building to building".
He said Spidey, unlike batman and superman, is a social reject who gets booed by people and who is a serious social outcast/DORK in high school.
This i thought was cool: Spiderman will have his web come directly from his wrist, in other words under the skin and not from a mechanical device. not touch. Keep in mind all the while there are pictures of story boards and costumes they were showing...oh yeah....the COSTUME!!
The costume will be something you've never seen before. although they didn't show the exact one, they showed 5 or 6 prototypes that did away with the old-school web pattern and basically came up with a new web pattern for lack of better words. but it looks very modern and sleek and pretty cool. much like the transition from old school batman to the dark knight.
anyway that's all i can remember and also there was a LOTR booth where i saw a looooong trailer/promo and it looks....great! And im a pretty pessimistic fan boy so heed my word: Live Tyler looks HOT.
im out,
Mad Aris
And finally, I received a call from what I will call, an unnamed Management Company, in Los Angeles that claimed that James Franco from FREAKS AND GEEKS has been cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Is this true? I mean... just right above on video, Sam Raimi says that they haven't yet found their webslinger... but that was on video, and this is allegedly something that went down today. We're working on getting it confirmed right now, but I figured you folks would want to hear the latest till we get the yea or nay on this one. Here's what Franco looks like...
