Daily Bugle
SPIDER, SPIDER, WHO WILL PLAY THE SPIDER-MAN?


Variety's Michael Fleming reports a number of actors are in the running for signing on to what Columbia is hoping to be a three-picture Spider-Man movie franchise.

According to Fleming, The lead candidates for the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man are Heath (Patriot) Ledger, Wes (American Beauty) Bentley, Chris Klein, Tobey Maguire and long shots, Ewan McGregor and Leonardo DiCaprio. Columbia has yet to announce that any actor is in consideration for the role.




COLUMBIA AXES DAREDEVIL, DOC STRANGE FEATURES


Columbia Pictures has decided to pass on the Daredevil and Doctor Strange feature films that are currently in development. The people behind those projects (writer/director Mark Steven Johnson and producing partner Gary Foster of Daredevil and likely Doctor Strange scripter Mike France) will probably have to go the free agent route in order to get their films made. According to Variety, Columbia and Marvel "hit a wall" after six months of negotiating.

Despite this announcement, Columbia is still going ahead with the Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man feature film.




TAKE YOUR SPIDER-MAN PILL, HONEY...


TrimFast Group, Inc. announced today that it has joined forces with Marvel to produce nutritional supplements based on Spider-Man. Through the deal, TrimFast obtains the rights to produce, market, and distribute Spider-Man Children's Chewable Multi-Vitamin Supplements. Each of the red vitamins will be shaped like Spider-Man and distributed through TrimFast's extensive channels of health food stores, mass merchants, grocery stores, drug stores and pharmacies.

To help the product stand out at retail, TrimFast is developing an intriguing, interactive packaging design featuring a bottle shaped liked Spider-Man's head. The products are expected to hit retail this summer. Kitsch collectors start your engines....


In a chat on the IGN.com website yesterday, Stan Lee joked with fans about Marvel's Spider-Man and X-Men films and also answered a few other burning questions.

Coyly keeping as many details about the upcoming Spidey film secret, Lee joked that he would love to play the film version of the wallcrawler - if he was younger, but would prefer to cast an unknown as Spider-Man/Peter Parker and fill the other roles wth big stars. He also reiterated that his first choice for a villain in the Spider-Man film would be Doctor Octopus, a character created by Lee and Ditko in Amazing Spider-Man #3.

When asked about the choice of directors for the film, Lee replied, "I'm disappointed about Jim [Cameron, not directing], but hoping David [Koepp, screenwriter] will do a great job. I know Sam Raimi will!"

Lee also revealed that he has yet to read Koepp's script for the movie, but did read Cameron's treatment, from which Koepp's is based, and felt Cameron's version was "great."

Lee also added that thanks to a fan's suggestion, he's going to bug director Sam Raimi to allow him to make a cameo in the film. Stan the Man as Uncle Ben, anyone?

Finally, in response to questions about rumors of Lee buying Marvel from the revenues generated by StanLee.net, Lee jovially replied that they weren't true, and that he barely had the spare change to buy lunch.
LARSEN'S SPIDER-MAN PREVIEW



It's been nearly 10 years since Erik (Savage Dragon) Larsen drew Spider-Man in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, but with May's issue #19, Larsen is back, and he's brought someone along for the ride...

[Proceed with caution, mini-spoiler ahead]

Amazing #19 finds the now MJ-less Peter haunted by dreams and totally out of clean Spidersuits. Acting like the true young 20-something (now) single guy he is, he grabs the last clean thing he spots before going swinging out - the black costume, based on the symbiote he brought back from the Secret Wars circa Amazing Spider-Man #252.

Spidey swinging in his black duds, causing Mrs. Brock to bug out and Eddie to hunt Spider-Man down...as Venom!




MARVEL MOVING FROM COMICS TO FILM


Marvel Enterprises will increasingly move into film and video games and away from comics, Marvel CEO Peter Cuneo told The Wall Street Journal.

With comic book sales flagging, company execs acknowledge that kids just aren’t ready comics that much anymore, according to the Journal. The newspaper says the company’s "only chance for survival is to leap--right off the page."

"The simple paper medium of comic books just isn't cutting it in the age of video's flashy special effects, explosive audio and interactive action," the Journal said.

Despite the move into celluloid, Marvel’s Cuneo acknowledges that the company won't get a cut of ticket sales for any ongoing movie project except for Spider-Man. "[T]he other deals were made by past Marvel CEOs that sold the rights to the characters for cash," Cuneo told the Journal.

Web only comics and interactive games at www.marvel.com are also in the offing.

Plus, Marvel will try to make its characters more relevant beginning with Spider-Man (Peter Parker) who is (in Spider-Girl) "a 30-something married man with a daughter and prosthetic leg." Peter Parker will become a "digital photographer for dailybugle.com".

arl Icahn, who owns 5% of Marvel, "has signed an agreement that essentially says he won't try to take over Marvel--at least until October 2002 when the accord expires," the Journal said.