Spider-Man casts his web on silver screen

O Hear the makers of the film tell it, getting the new Spider-Man movie made was as sticky and tangled as any web the superhero shoots from ...

O Hear the makers of the film tell it, getting the new Spider-Man movie made was as sticky and tangled as any web the superhero shoots from his wrist. For more than a decade, the film was mired in bankruptcies, lawsuits, director changes and even a Sept. 11 controversy over advertisements showing WTC’s twin towers.

The red-and blue-suited crime fighter has finally made his movie debut weaving the same adventurous tales for moviegoers as he has for Marvel comic book fans. The makers of the film say the wait may have been a good after all — good for them and the movie. So good, in fact, they are already planning a sequel. ‘‘You couldn’t have made it 15 years ago,’’ said Avi Arad, executive producer and Marvel Studios chief. ‘‘It needed special effects that weren’t in place until, probably, Terminator 2.’’ The wait brought about the assignment of director Sam Raimi, whose taste for cinematic arts varies from science-fiction thriller Dark Man to independent hit A Simple Plan with its tale of greed among ordinary people.

It is Raimi’s combining of the type of dizzying special effects needed for sci-fi thrillers with the humanity of a film like the critically acclaimed Simple Plan that is fuelling strong, early word-of-mouth for Spider-Man in Hollywood. Raimi, 42, campaigned hard for the job because he grew up reading the Spider-Man comics and felt he knew what Spider-Man’s alter-ego was all about.

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Parker, Raimi said, was raised in a working-class family, never gets the girl, is really uncool, and lies awake at night wondering if all this superhero stuff is worth it. ‘‘Peter Parker, unlike Superman, is really one of us,’’ said Raimi.

In the comic, Spider-man was bitten by a radioactive spider. For the film, Parker is bitten by a genetically engineered spider, which overnight transforms him. He is not the only one who finds his body changed by science. His best friend’s father, wealthy inventor Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), takes a serum meant to boost his own powers, but instead turns into the dark murderer, The Green Goblin.

Raimi’s Spider-Man is all about that basic instinct that drives all young men and thrills

young women. Parker just wants to score a date with the girl of his dreams. In this case, it is high-school sweetheart and red-haired flame Mary Jane Watson, played by Kirsten Dunst. (Reuters)

Parichay Kumar, Superintendent of Police (Patna East), who reached the spot, said: "We have been talking to the driver of Rajkumar Yadav. Prima facie, it looks to be a case of land dispute and money transactions."

RJD leader and property dealer Rajkumar Yadav shot dead in Patna

India1 hr ago

RJD leader Rajkumar Yadav was shot dead in Patna, Bihar by unidentified assailants. The police suspect a land dispute and money transactions to be the motive behind the murder. No arrests have been made yet. Yadav was attacked while returning home and succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.

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