Looking at markofthespider-man.com right now, on the screens they have Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and Seattle listed with timers underneath, the majority of which are counting down to a day and a half plus at this point.
Bad looking lizard toy looks bad. Yeah that 30 seconds less of Bruce Campbell is really going to make a dent in my viewing experience.
markofthespiderman.com updates: For each screen there's a link to a Twitter feed underneath and it looks as though there's some kind of scavanger hunt going on, I'm assuming once all the assignments have been completed then each of the static screens will reveal something. As of my typing this New York was in the lead with 4 out of 5 completed, LA on the other hand hasn't done jack shit. EDIT: Also written on the site:
markofthespider-man.com Update: All Twitter feeds report that all assignments have been completed. None of the screens have changed but we have a new message: And on top of that FedEx delivered the following to IGN this afternoon: There are some additional pics - a combination of Pete's photography, homework and other Spidey concept sketches. This is becoming one of the better viral movie marketing campaigns in recent years, I'm starting to think the best since the Dark Knights viral campaign.
This is really really cool and well done so far. I checked out the twitter links to see how the treasure hunt of sorts worked - pity they're only doing it in a few US cities.
markofthespider-man.com update: The static screens are now showing people finding the marks in each of the cities listed, and if you click on the red Spidey logo below you get this: It's John Scurti, aka Lou from "Rescue Me", as the doorman! Perhaps he's our new Bruce Campbell.
Filing this in the "for what it's worth" category as it's not directly related to the movie per-se - There's a new Spidey cartoon coming out, and it's worth noting that JK Simmons is voicing Jameson in it as well as having Clark Gregg voicing Agent Coulson. http://tv.ign.com/articles/122/1220110p1.html Also while there's no listed source for it, per IMDB JK was supposed to return as Jameson for the movie (Sam Elliot and R. Lee Ermey were also being considered) but as the script was altered the angle with the Daily Bugle was removed. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0948470/trivia But maybe this all means that he'll show up again in the next movie by popular demand.
Spider-man has had no success on TV since the 90s. How long did that MTV show last? And that was at the height of 'Spider-Mania' on the heels of the blockbuster new movies. Spectacular Spider-Man later, did no better. Honestly, they should go live action alla Smallville. That shit lasted 13 years (Maybe too long).
Spectacular Spider-Man was a great cartoon, much better than the 90s one. The only reason why it was cancelled after 2 seasons is because after Disney put Marvel under it's umbrella, they wanted to develop a cartoon "in house".
They have yet to top the 90's animated series, I'm sure it can be done but they haven't yet (same can be applied to X-Men). The EmptyVee one with Neil Patrick Harris was atrocious, and Spectacular wasn't anything to really write home about. But one thing to note Jimmy - They've done a live action Spidey series, in fact I'm almost certain that was the first version of Spidey in any form of mass media outside of the comics. And it really wasn't anything to write home about, but most people kind of leave it be because they were only capable of doing so much on TV back in the 70's.
BLASPHEMY SKETCH! Wasn't that in the 70s or something? Like you said TV is WAY better now (Have you ever seen the Captain America movies? ). Plus it didn't have the humor that, say, Batman had. That was that series' saving grace. Quirky humor.
Whaaat In terms of plotting it was far more cohesive than 90s Spider-Man, with the "Big Man" mystery and slow burn on both the Green Goblin and Venom paced excellently, along with connecting a lot of villain introductions and origins organically. The character design also really stands out - especially against the new Disney XD one where there's absolutely nothing unique about the style at all. I watched some clips earlier and Spidey, no joke, has Family Guy esque cutaway moments in his head.
Keep in mind the 70's series was intended as some kind of response to Batman, also likely trying to ride the success of The Incredible Hulk, but as we all know at that tine a Spidey live action TV series didn't translate well. They could pull it off with ease today but I doubt Marvel will try it, they want more Spidey movies so the tube will continue to get toons. Again Spectacular didn't do anything for me but I'll admit that I didn't watch a whole ton of episodes.
Another hard aspect of the time was the costume. That outfit looked ridiculous. Even the batman suit didn't look so hot, but the humor helped it along (And the badass Batmobile). They could even do, again, like Smallville and make it Peter before he ever develops the suit (And never reveal the suit (Or reveal it from a distance and all blurry like smallville did in the last episode). Just running around in a red hooded-sweatshirt.
I think the key difference between Peter and Clark though is that Pete publicly began his crime-fighting days in high school, historically speaking anyways. When it comes to Clark there's actual material to work with regarding his high school and college days before he put on the suit and cape, with Pete it's kind of common knowledge what happens. Of course this could all easily be changed but I can't see them doing something Smallville style with Peter and having it work. It's like the initial idea they had for the Year One movie where we would be following Bruce Waynes life right before he put on the cape and cowl which would be right at the end of the movie, something about that just didn't sit well with me and I didn't think it could work as a movie.
You know I'm looking at the Wiki article on the old TV series and supposedly it did really well in the ratings, the reason for it's cancellation was a combination of things - CBS didn't want to be known as the "Super-Hero Network" with Spidey, Hulk, Wonder Woman, Captain America and Doctor Strange all having TV shows (fascinating as it seems like WB/CW was actually attempting this with the success of Smallville by then doing Birds Of Prey and attempting such projects like The Graysons), also there was a backlash from Spidey fans against the show and Stan Lee himself wound up voicing his dissatisfaction with it (in spite of the fact that he was a script consultant for each episode).
