(here's something i got from the internet concerning the spiderman movie)
_____________________________________________________________________________
                        THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN MOVIE
                        WEB SITE HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN!
Here is a letter we received from Marvel Comics:
Via E-mail: wrngdimboy@aol.com
July 10, 1997
Mr. Howard Hallis
Weird Future
Dear Mr. Hallis:
It has come to our attention that a variety of material relating to what is
presented as a movie in development based on Marvel's well-known Spider-Man
comic character is posted on your world wide web site entitled "The Amazing
Spider-Man", located at the URL
"http://nmach1.threedgraphics.com/weirdfuture/spidey/amazingspiderman.html".
The site features the names and likenesses of various Marvel comic
characters, including but not limited to Spider-Man, Green Goblin, Doctor
Octopus, Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson and J. Jonah Jameson. In addition,
...weirdfuture/weirdfuturecomics.html includes a link to pornographic
images involving Marvel's Mr. Fantastic and DC Comics' Plastic Man.
Moreover, the initial screen reads, in part, MGM presents a Weird Future
production...produced by Marvel Entertainment... and the following legal
notice appears at several different locations throughout the site: The
Amazing Spider Man Movie Web Site is a trademark of
www.threedgraphics.com/weirdfuture. All rights reserved..
You state that you have written a screenplay, that you are "...meeting with
folks around Hollywood about our treatment of the film..." and that you
"...are currently in negotiations over the screenplay". Be that as it
may, Marvel cannot condone your unauthorized use of characters in which we
own copyright and trademark rights, and particularly not in connection with
pornographic material. Nor can we condone your creating the impression that
Marvel is involved with and/or has authorized production of a movie based on
your screenplay or your claim of ownership by
www.threedgraphics.com/weirdfuture of the trademark "The Amazing Spider-Man
Movie Web Site".
These characters, including their names and likenesses, are the exclusive
property of Marvel Characters, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marvel
Entertainment Group, Inc., and your use of that property is entirely without
Marvel*s authorization. Marvel is among the leaders in the youth
entertainment industry and our characters are the basis of our business.
Spider-Man is one of our most famous characters and trademarks. Your use
of Spider-Man and other Marvel characters without authorization, and
particularly in this fashion, is a blatant infringement of Marvel's rights;
it constitutes trademark infringement, copyright infringement and state and
federal unfair competition and dilution. From the E-mail messages displayed
on your web site, it is clear that your use is creating confusion as to the
source and/or the affiliation of your site and your screenplay; significant
numbers of fans appear to believe, or at least to suspect, that your site
and your screenplay are officially authorized by Marvel.
Accordingly, we demand that you immediately remove from your web site all
materials featuring Marvel's Spider-Man and/or any other Marvel characters
and that you cease and desist from any and all use of our characters without
permission. Marvel protects its copyright and trademark rights vigorously.
Unless Marvel receives proof of the removal of the offensive material by
July 18, 1997, we will take any actions we deem necessary to protect our
valuable proprietary rights. Please feel free to call me at (212) ***-****
to discuss this matter further.
The foregoing is without prejudice to and with reservation of any and all
rights, remedies or claims to which Marvel is entitled. Thank you in advance
for your full cooperation in this matter.
Sincerely,
Phyllis Schoenberg
Compliance Department
Okay...okay...so let me tell you the story....
About three years ago my friend Erich Orser and I were talking about super
hero movies and the subject of Spider-Man came up. Since Spidey was the only
one of the "Big 3" comic characters that every kid knows about (besides
Super
Man and Batman) that has not been made into a major motion picture, we
started conceptualizing what we would like to see.
Since the Batman movies began as Art Deco Film Noir tributes to the
30's and 40's (when the character was created), Spider-Man should also begin
his movie career as a reflection of the times in which HE was created. Peter
Parker and his friends grew up in New York during the 1960's and may very
well have shown up at Studio 54 or been at a party with Andy Warhol and The
Velvet Underground.
Most comic fans will recall the infamous "drug issues" (Amazing Spider-Man
#96-98) where Harry Osborne freaks out on pills...or the battle Spider-Man
had with The Green Goblin where he got hit with a "Psychedelic Pumpkin Bomb"
(Spectacular Spider-Man
Magazine #2, reprinted in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #9), or the time Gwen
Stacy tries
to get Peter Parker to see the classic 60's film "I Am Curious (Yellow)".
(Amazing Spider-Man #101). Peter Parker even had to deal with student
protestors (Amazing Spider-Man #68) and for a few years Flash Thompson was
drafted to fight in Vietnam.
All this would be fantastic on screen.
It seemed obvious to us that the first Spider-Man movie should take place in
the 60's.
But the classic Spider-Man story that I always thought would translate
exceptionally well into a movie would be the death of Gwen Stacy and The
Green Goblin (Amazing Spider-Man #121-122). It was truly a masterpiece of
English literature. No fooling. Stan Lee created a classic tale of love and
revenge.
Erich, who is a writer and film student, told me he would write a screenplay
if I went and collected the original stories for him and put them together.
So I did.
Meanwhile, we had done some research and found out that film
producer/director James Cameron (Terminator 1 & 2, Titanic) had the rights
to Spider-Man and that a mess of legal problems had halted the production of
the film for almost a decade. Then we heard that MGM had acquired the rights
from Cameron's production company and that Stan Lee wanted Cameron to do it,
but knew he had a 3 picture deal with Fox and wouldn't get around to it
until around 2002.
Knowing this, we wondered what we could do about letting people see our
version of the
Spider-Man movie RIGHT NOW.
Since Marvel owns the rights to the characters and the film would probably
be written by some big name screenwriter hired by MGM (if Cameron's own
version doesn't end up being produced) there was little chance of us walking
in to MGM with a script and getting any attention. They'd probably think we
were some crazy LA kids from the boonies who want to break in to the
"Industry" just like everyone else. If they DID like our ideas, they would
probably just take them and not give us any credit...why should they? What
right do we have to them anyway?
Even though we do have an entire screenplay, how can we hope to get anywhere
with it if all the material is adapted from a source we don't own? Well, we
could just give all our ideas away and not hope for any compensation for our
time and energy, but we wondered if there was another way.
So we put it up on the web. Not the entire screenplay we had created, but a
list of actors we agreed would be great in the parts and a short plot
synopsis on how we saw the film. We even made up a soundtrack and poster. We
may not own the characters, but the concepts and ideas expressed about the
film on the web site we felt were our intellectual property, and that is why
we said THE WEB SITE was our copyright.
                                  
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