WEB MASTER 'SPIDER-MAN' SNARES HIS WAITING FANS IN A FRENZY OF ANTICIPATION.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

The 2001 movie year has yet to get under way, but the biggest film story so far is about a picture that's not coming out until May 3, 2002.

Yes, the long-awaited ``Spider-Man'' movie starts shooting on Monday, and to get everybody excited about it, Columbia Pictures hosted a kick-off press conference at Sony Studios in Culver City on Thursday.

A hundred or so press people - and that broadly defined group included the Internet preview-obsessed set led by ``Ain't It Cool News' '' Harry Knowles and the even geekier fanboy types who are hard-wired to countdown sites such as spidermanhype.com - interviewed stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Willem Dafoe, director Sam Raimi, special-effects supervisor John Dykstra and assorted producers in the bleacher-filled soundstage containing the movie's early wrestling match set.

While questions ranged from how Maguire felt about wearing tights to whether the superhero would generate his own, organic web material (the answer is yes; in the comic books it's synthetic, and this has evidently been a point of great concern among the true believers for months), some information normal people might be interested in was also shared.

``In Stan Lee's original conception, Spider-Man was a real human being,'' said Raimi (``The Gift,'' ``The Evil Dead'' horror films) of the Marvel Comics character created by Lee, Jack Kirby and artist Steve Ditko in 1962. ``That completely changed the demographic of comic book readers at that point. Suddenly, here was this real character with a love relationship (and sometimes two), who had family problems ... It wasn't about just being the strong guy.

``We're trying to stay true to the spirit of that. We're trying to make the picture appeal to an intelligent audience, so that adults can really enjoy it, but at its heart can have a lot of fun and adventure so that the kids will also enjoy it.''

The film will evidently follow the basic origin story - nerdy Brooklyn teen-ager Peter Parker (Maguire) is bitten by a radioactive spider, develops superstrength, wall-crawling abilities and other powers as a result, vows to use those powers for good after a beloved guardian is murdered and, as Spider-Man, is mistaken by the authorities for a criminal himself - then introduce the series' signature villain, the Green Goblin (Dafoe).

``Wonder Boys'' and ``Cider House Rules'' star Maguire has been preparing for the role since July. Although swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper through New York City will clearly be a great physical challenge, his training has differed from Schwarzenegger-style muscle-building or the Asian martial arts of such contemporary action movie hits as ``The Matrix'' and ``Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.''

``I've done all kinds of training for flexibility and acrobatic grace,'' the 25-year-old actor said. ``But Spider-Man is no martial artist; he's got his own style of fighting. First of all, he's so strong, if he hit regular people like that, he could seriously injure them, and he's too responsible of a man to do such a thing.

``I personally can do any style of fighting that they'd ask for,'' Maguire joshed. ``And I did a demonstration for Sam, begging him to please let me show off my skills. But no; we've gotta stick to the comic book ...''

Raimi, whose movie ``Darkman'' is often considered the closest thing to a live-action comic book ever filmed, added that a combination of movie magic and Maguire's hoped-for prowess will make us believe a man can web-swing. He wouldn't say how, but he did sound confident.

``Our great challenge is to make Spider-Man believable,'' the director said. ``Kids really want to soar with Spider-Man 60 stories up, they want to dance with him in these aerial acrobatics that he performs. Those illusions are going to be accomplished in a lot of different ways, but I don't want to reveal too much and spoil it. I want kids to be swept up into the thing, not picking the scenes apart.''

``We're going to enhance and help along the spirit and the soul of 'Spider-Man' where, for physical reasons, we fall short,'' added Dykstra, a veteran of the original ``Star Wars'' effects effort. ``I think it will be indistinguishable from reality. I believe that you will be hard-pressed to tell the places where we help reality a little bit. But we will press the limits; we're going to do things that haven't been done in a movie before.''

It's already something of a movie miracle that they're getting the chance to do it at all. For years, the 'Spider-Man' movie rights have been hung up in a tortuous series of turf battles and studio bankruptcies. ``Terminator''/``Titanic'' creator James Cameron was attached to the project through much of the 1990s; Raimi readily admits that elements of Cameron's treatment are still evident in his shooting script, which has gone through many writers' word processors but is now mainly credited to ``Jurassic Park's'' David Koepp.

``It's a very big party for me today,'' said executive producer and Marvel Productions chief Avi Arad. ``We've been waiting for this a long time. There is kind of a bloody history here. There was a bankruptcy in the past (Carolco Pictures), some lawsuits, MGM was involved, Marvel went through bankruptcy ... It took a long time to coordinate it, but the good news is that it's clean now, all the rights are here at Sony, where they belong.

``And it's in the right hands. Sam was an obvious choice because what we look for in our pictures is passion, and this is something that he always wanted to do. I can tell you about his (Spidey) pajamas, the wall behind his bed ... And he still climbs the walls every so often.''

And so fans won't be scaling the plasterboard for the next 16 months or so, it was confirmed that the hero's uniform will more or less resemble the original, blue and red-webbed job. And blond teen queen Dunst assured us that she'll be playing Parker's main squeeze, Mary Jane Watson, with appropriately authentic red hair.

``I wouldn't want to upset any Spider-Man fans,'' Dunst said with a giggle.

Now we'll have to wait all the way until spring of next year for that particular pleasure.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

In 1962, Stan Lee (with the help of Jack Kirby and artist Steve Ditko) created the comic book character Spider-Man, xxxxxx, who will come to life in spring 2002 with the release of a ``Spider-Man'' movie, which includes James Franco, left, Willem Dafoe, Tobey Maguire, Sam Raimi as director and Kirsten Dunst.