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Spider-Man musical gets new producers -- and a Peter Parker

Reeve Carney

The creative team behind Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark emerged from today's meeting with an announcement about new producers and official word on the musical's lead actor.

What they didn't reveal, however, was a specific date for the troubled Broadway musical, only saying that it will open in 2010 at the Hilton Theatre in Manhattan. The show, whose proposed budget has ballooned to $52 million, initially was set to bow in late March, but the most recent rumors had it opening past April 29 -- the cutoff for Tony Award nominations.

The creative team confirmed relative newcomer Reeve Carney, long rumored for the role, has been cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. The casting initially had been reported this morning in the Los Angeles Times. The 26-year-old Carney, lead singer of the rock band of the same name, also will appear in Spider-Man director Julie Taymor's big-screen adaptation of The Tempest.

In Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Carney joins Evan Rachel Wood as Mary Jane and Alan Cumming as Green Goblin in a production scored by Bono and the Edge.

This afternoon's press release also included the announcement that Michael Cohl has replaced Chicago lawyer David Garfinkle as lead producer, with Jeremiah J. Harris becoming second producer. The full producing team is Cohl, Harris, Hello Entertainment/Garfinkle, Marvel Entertainment/David Maisel, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Future of troubled Spider-Man musical could be set today

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

The fate of the financially troubled Spider-Man Broadway musical could be decided today.

According to published reports, producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, whose budget has soared to $52 million, are meeting in Manhattan with director Julie Taymor and other members of the creative team to discuss the cash-flow problems that stalled production for nearly a month and cast doubt on the future of the production.

The musical had been set to preview in late February at a renovated Hilton Theatre, and then open sometime in March. But Patrick Healy of The New York Times writes that Taymor is expected to say rehearsals for the technically complex show won't be able to begin before January, which could push the opening past April 29 -- the cutoff date for Tony Award nominations.

Perhaps of more pressing concern is the $24 million needed to cover a proposed budget that ballooned to $52 million from an estimated $35 million, in part due to theater renovations and restorations. According to the Los Angeles Times, Spider-Man will cost about $1 million a week to produce -- "hundreds of thousands dollars more than what some elaborate shows such as Mary Poppins or West Side Story cost -- and require the 1,700-seat theater to sell out for every show for four years just to break even.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which boasts a musical score by Bono and the Edge, has cast Evan Rachel Wood as Mary Jane, Alan Cumming as Green Goblin and, apparently, relative newcomer Reeve Carney as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. (Carney, who will appear in Taymor's big-screen adaptation of The Tempest, long had been rumored for the role of Spider-Man but never confirmed.)

However, as the LA Times notes, with production delays the musical risks losing the cast to other projects. Cumming, for instance, was just added to the cast of Burlesque, which begins filming next week.

NOTE: A post detailing the announcements made after the meeting can be found here.

By the Hurrying Hordes of Holborn: McCarthy's Dr. Strange/Spider-Man promo

Fever promo

Mark Kardwell shares with us an "idea sketch for a 'Coming Soon" type of advert" for Fever, the upcoming Dr. Strange/Spider-Man miniseries written and drawn by Brendan McCarthy. This Marvel Knights series is due in April, McCarthy told Kaldwell.

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

American Booksellers Association

Retailing | The American Booksellers Association has asked the Department of Justice to investigate the online price war being waged by Wal-Mart, Amazon and Target. The trade group says that by selling advance-order hardcovers at deep discounts the three retail giants are engaging in "illegal predatory pricing" and making it impossible for smaller stores to compete.

Ron Catapano of Ron's Comic World in Mount Holly, New Jersey, asserts that direct-market retailers face a similar scenario: "I hope the comic publishers are paying attention. When the Watchmen movie came out and Amazon was selling the Watchmen trade paperback for less than I could get the book from Diamond Comic Distributors (including shipping cost), I complained and nobody cared. For most discounters, these books are not a significant part of their business, they are just something to make a few extra dollars on." [ICv2.com]

ChuChu

Publishing | Japanese publishing giant Shogakukan plans to close three of its magazines, including the shojo manga monthly ChuChu. The magazine debuted in December 2005 with a print run of 180,000, but more recently sales have hovered around 50,000 copies. [Anime News Network]

Libraries | The New Jersey State Library has awarded $3,000 grants to 14 libraries to help them establish and expand graphic-novel collections. The State Library also conducted workshops about developing collections, and furnished librarians with "a core graphic novel bibliography" to help them with their purchases. [NJ.com]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Libraries | Two library employees in Nicholasville, Kentucky, were fired last month after they refused to allow an 11-year-old girl to check out The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which they dubbed pornographic. However, the policy of the Jessamine County Library states it's the responsibility of parents to decide what's appropriate for their child to read.

The fired employees, Beth Bovaire and Sharon Cook, stand behind their decision, asserting that the award-winning comic by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill contains lewd pictures that are inappropriate for children.

"If you give children pornography, a child, a 12 year old, can not understand and process the same way a 30 year old can," Cook told a local television news station. [WTVQ, WTVQ]

Tokyo International Manga Library

Libraries | A private university in Tokyo hopes to promote the serious study of manga by opening a library stocked with 2 million comics, anime drawings, video games and other artifacts. If everything goes as planned, the Tokyo International Manga Library would open on the campus of Meiji University in 2015. [AFP]

Publishing | Even after the closing last year of Virgin Comics, upbeat profiles of the Indian comics industry continue to appear regularly. But here Gaurav Jain, head of the Mumbai-based Illusion Interactive Animation, offers a more dismal assessment of the scene in India: "While competition has arrived, the local industry continues to live in its shell, churning out visually unappealing and terribly written local content with little or no film and television possibilities. One of the most widely read labels offers sanitized, vanilla retellings of Indian mythology and historical figures with visuals inspired from the works of Raja Ravi Verma. Derivative art work and bland writing, leads to visual fatigue." [The Wall Street Journal]

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Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Blackest Night #3

Publishing | Sales of comics to the direct market increased 12 percent in September over the same month last year, lifting the third quarter by 7 percent. Graphic novels, meanwhile, slipped 2 percent in September and 10 percent for the quarter, largely because of the strong performance of Watchmen in 2008.

DC's Blackest Night #3 topped Diamond's comics chart, with sales estimated at 140,786, followed by Marvel's Captain America: Reborn #3 with 108,331. The "Blackest Night" event performed well for DC, with five related titles placing in the Top 10. ICv2.com notes in its analysis that the $3.99 price tag on some of Marvel's comics appears to be having an impact on sales, with the second issues of Ultimate Comics Avengers and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man falling about 15,000 copies each, and Hulk #15 dropping about 18,700 from the previous issue.

The graphic novels list was led by the fifth volume of Dark Horse's Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, with an estimated 7,225 copies. However, the most interesting entry is probably R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis Illustrated, which charted at No. 28 with some 2,178 copies. [ICv2.com]

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New investors may rescue Spider-Man musical

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

The financially strapped Spider-Man musical may have found new backers to make up for a $10-million shortfall.

Roger Friedman -- you'll remember him for his review of a pirated copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine -- reports that Jim Stern of Endgame Productions may step in to pick up the slack left after producer David Garfinkle ran into money problems a couple of months ago. New Jersey real-estate mogul-turned-movie producer Norton Herrick also could pitch in.

"Cash-flow obstacles" caused preparation work on Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark shut down in early August before resuming about a month later. The Broadway production, directed by Julie Taymor (The Lion King) and featuring music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge, is expected to cost somewhere between $35 million and $45 million.

Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming have been cast as Mary Jane Watson and Green Goblin. The role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man hasn't been announced.

Despite the delays, the musical is set to begin previews in late February and open sometime in March.

'Can you imagine spider-powers and infallibility?'

Spider-Pope!

On last night's episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert spied a spider crawling on the face of Pope Benedict XVI and posed a hypothetical scenario that would make Stan Lee proud: "... Given all the toxic waste and loose nuclear radiation all over Eastern Europe, if that spider bit the pope we might soon have ... Spider-Pope!"

"He could shoot holy water from his wrists," Colbert continued. "Trap atheists in his web, and every time someone used birth control his popey-sense would tingle!"

Straight for the art | A pair of covers by Terry Dodson

Uncanny X-Men #518 Cover Art

Artist Terry Dodson shares two "work in progress" covers over on his blog. First, the above cover for Uncanny X-Men #518, and second, the pencils for an upcoming issue of What If? about Spider-Man.

Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes

Viz Media

Internet | A draft letter leaked earlier this week has revealed the desire of a manga-scanlation group to partner with a major publisher, and touched a nerve with members of its online community. In the muddled draft, one of the owners of Manga Helpers suggests Viz Media could somehow benefit by teaming with the website, which posts fan-translated scans of Japanese comics. (MangaHelpers recently received cease-and-desist letters from Japanese publisher Kodansha.)

Reaction to the leaked letter was quick and largely negative, causing another Manga Helpers founder to post an "explanation on current events": "The goal behind presenting that document to a company was so that we can promote the fans -- not their work. We wanted to create a bridge between publisher and fan (scanlator - translator - artist) to help everyone work together and not only make online distribution legitimate, but to increase the amount of released manga by promoting the talented translators, editors and artists we have at MH."

Simon Jones notes that financial concerns may be at the core of Manga Helpers' proposition: "They are worried about having to pull more content at the request of Japanese companies giving increasing scrutiny to the scanlation scene, and in the process lose a great deal of their user community and the advertising profits from it.  Shueisha and Shogakkukan are larger manga publishers than Kodansha by volume, and through Viz, Manga Helpers hopes to secure their remaining content." Brad Rice, meanwhile, suggests it's probably not a good idea for a site that hosts illegal scans to attract attention to itself. [Manga Helpers]

Business | Sonny Bunch suggests that Disney should have passed up Marvel, whose major properties are tied up in film and theme-park licensing agreements, and instead purchased an "indie" publisher, such as Dark Horse. [The Washington Times]

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Confirmed: Jack Kirby's heirs want a piece of Spider-Man

Amazing Fantasy #15

Spider-Man is, indeed, one of the Marvel characters listed in the 45 copyright-termination notices sent last week by the heirs of Jack Kirby.

With Sony Pictures among the list of recipients -- along with Marvel, Disney, Fox, Universal and others -- it seemed likely that Kirby's four children were seeking a portion of the copyright to the wall-crawler (Sony holds the movie rights to the character in perpetuity). Now The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog confirms that after reviewing termination notices for Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four.

Wait. Didn't Stan Lee and Steve Ditko create Spider-Man? Well ... yes. However, Kirby was clearly involved in the early stages. The nature, and extent, of that involvement isn't quite so clear.

As Borys Kit and Matthew Belloni recount at Heat Vision, Lee initially approached Kirby to help develop the concept and draw the initial story in 1962's Amazing Fantasy #15. For one reason or another -- Lee has said he didn't like Kirby's muscular, or "too heroic," take on Spider-Man -- Ditko was tapped to draw the story, with Kirby providing the cover.

But some accounts assert that Kirby contributed elements from an unpublished character called Silver Spider that he developed in the 1950s with longtime collaborator Joe Simon. Others say Silver Spider became The Fly, a character created by Simon and Kirby for Archie Comics' Red Circle imprint.

According to the Heat Vision report, Kirby's heirs seek to recapture a share of the copyright to characters and story elements that appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 -- Aunt May, Uncle Ben, Flash Thompson, etc. -- plus characters and concepts like J. Jonah Jameson, the Daily Bugle, Chameleon, the Tinkerer and the Lizard, most of which debuted months later in issues of The Amazing Spider-Man. (The Daily Bugle first appeared in Fantastic Four #2.)

If the Kirby children are successful, they would reclaim their father's portion of the copyright to key characters and concepts from the Marvel Universe as early as 2017 for the Fantastic Four. In most cases, that would seem to mean co-ownership with Marvel, as Lee agreed to waive claim to any of the characters.  With Spider-Man, one-third ownership could be possible if the Kirbys were to prevail yet the judge recognized Ditko's interests.

Although Disney asserts it "fully considered" the potential copyright claims before it launched its $4-billion purchase of Marvel, this move by the Kirby children surely complicates matters. If nothing else, it provides additional fuel for those who already had criticized Disney for wading into a tangle of licensing agreements that could prevent the House of Mouse from making movies based on Spider-Man, the X-Men, Fantastic Four and other central Marvel properties for years (last link via Dirk Deppey).

Hey there, there tweets the Spider-Man

"OMFG! Did I really tweet that?!"

It's easy enough, I suppose, to slip up using Twitter: You realize -- too late! -- that you probably shouldn't have divulged something or, like John Hodgman, you accidentally tweet your telephone number to all of your followers.

However, if you're a superhero who's fought tirelessly, with one minor exception, to keep your identity a secret, you can't really afford such missteps.

Yet look at Spider-Man who, in just two days on Twitter, already has made references to Aunt May, Mary Jane, Harry, and Dr. Connors' class.

Surely at least some of the wall-crawler's enemies use Twitter. Oh, probably not the Vulture or the Rhino, but certainly Doctor Octopus does. Mysterio? Please. Just try to keep him from tweeting during Gossip Girl.

And never underestimate the universe- and Dumpster-spanning reach of Hobo Darkseid.

Heck, Spider-Man might as well just hand out maps to his house while he's at it.

Production resumes on financially troubled Spider-Man musical

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

It looks as if word of the death of the Spider-Man musical may have been premature.

Multiple media reports have "modest" work resuming today on the $35-million Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which halted production in early August because of cash-flow problems on the part of lead producer Hello Entertainment.

But Variety notes that the Broadway show, directed by Julie Taymor (The Lion King) and featuring music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge, "isn't quite out of the financial woods yet."

"Not everyone who was working on Spider-Man has been called back to work, it's said," writes Gordon Cox, "which some point to as an indication that while producers have gotten hold of some of the cash needed to capitalize the massive tuner, not all of it has yet been secured."

As we reported yesterday, the rest of the cash isn't likely to come from Disney, which on Monday announced plans to purchase Marvel Entertainment. Instead, the New York Post's Michael Riedel says, the funding could come from the pockets of Bono's wealthy friends.

"Bono's too smart to put his own money in the show," Riedel writes, "but word on the street is that he's tapped into his vast network of rich friends and business associates to restart production."

Sony returns all television rights to Spider-Man

The Spectacular Spider-Man

Just days before Disney announced its purchase of Marvel, Spectacular Spider-Man Executive Producer Greg Weisman was informed that Sony had returned all television rights to the wall-crawler.

The move, "in exchange for some concession vis-a-vis the live-action Spider-Man features," apparently took place  in late July, just before Comic-Con International.

The news came as producers were waiting to learn whether a third season of The Spectacular Spider-Man would be ordered. The animated series, which debuted in March 2008 on The CW's now-defunct Kids' WB! programming block, moved to Disney XD for its second season. Episodes from the first season also stream on Marvel's website.

It's unclear what this, and the Disney-Marvel deal, will mean to the future of the show.

"A number of folks at Marvel have said kind things about the show in the past," Weisman tells IGN.com, "but as you can imagine they have a LOT on their plates right now, so no one's talked to me about any potential pick-ups since the world turned a bit upside-down. What hasn't changed, I imagine, is that we're still waiting to hear whether Disney XD even WANTS a new season. If Disney XD decides they don't want any episodes, it's no longer likely that we'd shop the series around to XD's competitors. So any decision begins at XD, I would think. And before you ask, no, nobody at Disney has talked to me about the series. "

Don't expect Disney to rescue Spider-Man musical

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

If you thought the Disney-Marvel deal could mean a lifeline for the troubled Spider-Man musical -- I'm looking at you, Bono -- you might want to think again.

Variety reports that while yesterday's big announcement prompted speculation on Broadway, Disney is unlikely to take control of the big-budget Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which has halted work while producers try to navigate "cash-flow obstacles."

But why wouldn't Walt Disney Theatrical Productions -- the division behind such successful live productions as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King -- lend a white glove-covered hand? Gordon Cox counts off the reasons, not the least of which is Marvel's existing agreement with Sony Pictures Productions.

"Besides," Cox writes, "it's understood that Marvel ... is just licensing the property, and was never on the hook to contribute any coin to the mega-musical's hefty capitalization costs, considered to be north of $35 million. It's a risk-free fiscal position that would seem foolish to abandon."

The musical, directed by Julie Taymor (Disney's The Lion King) and featuring music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge, reportedly is still set to begin previews on Feb. 25, and open sometime in March.