The Amazing Spider-Man

Here's the latest picture for the new Spider-Man film, with its official title 'The Amazing Spider-Man'.

Now, as great as this looks... when did Peter Parker become a master costume maker or did Aunt May give him a hand?

Obama to star in Spider-Man comic

US President-elect Barack Obama is to appear on the cover of a special edition of a Spider-Man comic.

A six-page story, with the superhero saving the day when an imposter tries to take Mr Obama's place as president, will hit shelves next Wednesday.


For the full story click here.

What's the best comic book to film adaptation?

Well, its seems both Spider-Man and Iron Man have scored equal amounts on my poll for best comic to film adaptation. Its a bit of a surprise to me (I was expecting Batman Begins to have a better result) but both are great movies.

Nice voting people!

Stan Lee's movie schedule

Stan Lee's a busy guy. Spider-man 4 (with Jake Gyllenhaal rumoured as taking over the lead)... hmm, interesting!

Toei Spider-Man

Here's the titles for the little known seventies Japanese Spider-Man (a.k.a 'Toei no Supaidâ-Man') series. Made by the Toei film studios famous for pioneering giant kung-fu fighting robot transformations seen in shows such as Power Rangers.

Fully endorsed by Stan Lee at Marvel, this series saw quite a different Spider-Man to the one seen in the comics and cartoons, mostly due to the toy company Bandai sponsoring the show. This Spider-Man wouldn't always be climbing walls and shooting web at villains, this version drives around in a Spidey-Car and fights weird looking Ninjas on a mostly flat surface judging from the clips I've seen on YouTube. Oh, and he can summon a giant flying Spidey-Robot (known as Mabera) to use in battle!



Up until seeing these clips I wondered why in comic shops (such as Forbidden Planet in London) toys such as the Spidey-Car and other vehicles were available, the US version never needed transportation.

Its had a limited DVD release in Japan but if you want it be prepared to spend a load of money (well over £200). Pirate versions can be found on the web and some episodes are available to download via torrent sites like Mininova (I'm currently downloading an episode).

UPDATE
I've now watched a full episode. Its really funny especially when Takuya (the Japanese equivalent to Peter Parker) transforms into Spidey. The suit is summoned via his wrist band communicator and out from nowhere a very flat, almost paper thin cut-out of Spider-man floats in front, one quick zip and Spider-man is complete.
No subtitles or Japanese language skills are required to enjoy this as the story is very easy to follow.

Spider-Man : The Musical

Bono & The Edge (of U2 fame) are currently working on a musical version of Spider-Man for the stage. It's news to me but apparently this has been on the cards since April.

I like the idea of this and its also a step closer to my plan of turning the Lethal Weapon movies into a musical/opera.

It could really work!

Spider-Man 3 : How It Should Have Ended

Check out the How It Should Have Ended (HISHE) site for other funny clips.

Canceled Films (Part 1)

He-Man 2

Back in the 80's, after the success of the first He-Man film (Masters of the Universe) a big budget sequel was planned. It was going to be shot back to back with a brand new Spider-Man movie, the only problem was that the huge budget was already running out. To make a bit of extra cash to help fuel both projects the director (Albert Pyun) quickly wrote the screenplay to the film 'Cyborg' over a weekend, with the awesome Chuck Norris penned in for the lead. Unfortunately Chuck was under contract with another studio so newcomer Jean-Claude Van Damme was cast in his place. Cyborg was a huge failure and resulted in both the He-Man sequel and Spider-Man movie being canceled. It was probably for the best in the long run although I'd love to see a Chuck Norris version of 'Cyborg'!

Coincidentally, the film Cyborg has been known as 'Masters of the Universe II: The Cyborg' on American TV!