Spider-Man 3’s Tobey Maguire is planning on selling his soul according to Variety. The actor recently made a deal with Gerald Fraller to adapt his story for Maguire Entertainment and Nash Entertainment. Fraller is currently “selling” his soul on his website www.winmysoul.com. The winner of his soul will receive among other things, a percentage of his taxable income for life, the option to name any future children he may have and the chance to plan his wedding (though his future wife may have issue with the last two). Fraller came up with the idea when his dream job in Taiwan fell apart along with his marriage and he became extremely depressed. He hopes to use the money to help finance a positive change in his life.
Producer Laura Ziskin has her hands full these days. Not only is she working on this summer’s Spider-Man 3, but she is also producing the 79th annual Academy Awards which will air on Sunday, February 25th to a worldwide audience. ”When I was a little kid, I’d always put on plays and shows, and this is like that feeling of, `Let’s put on a show,’” says Ziskin. ”But instead of me inviting the neighborhood kids to put on a show, I get to invite the biggest stars in the world, and they come for that night and they’re our cast.”
Producing such a monumental show isn’t new to Ziskin. She was behind the 2002 telecast which she produced while putting the finishing touches on the first Spider-Man film. What allured Ziskin toward such an endeavor? ”A film is a very manipulated reality,” she says. ”A live show, the whole appeal of it is that it’s live, it’s happening. We’re not manipulating it. We’re creating an environment where something’s going to happen. Obviously, every envelope that’s opened, we don’t know what’s in it, so that’s where the excitement is.”
As for what drives the acclaimed producer to take on such difficult, yet diverse projects? ”I love what I do,” Ziskin says. ”I either like to do absolutely nothing or I like to be really busy. I don’t like that in-between.”
The New York Post is reporting that Spider-Man 3 director Sam Raimi has been approached by New Line Cinema to direct The Hobbit - the prequel to the highly successful Lord of the Rings trilogy. The news comes on the heels of New Line Co-Chairman and Co-CEO Bob Shaye stating Peter Jackson would not be directing the prequel due to his suing the studio for additional Lord of the Rings profits.
No deal for Raimi to take over directing reigns on The Hobbit has been made and appears unlikely as Raimi is currently working hard on finishing Spider-Man 3 and has several projects in the pipeline already including The Shadow, Doc Savage and possibly a fourth Spider-Man film.
Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee has acknowledged that many of his Marvel creations were in response to the politically charged atmosphere of the sixties. “The thing I had in mind was to make it a story against bigotry of all sorts, because here were people who were certainly different than everybody else, but they were good, they were trying to do the right thing,” says Lee. ”But as so often happens in real life, if you have a different religion, a different country, a different sexual orientation, whatever the difference is, people - not all people, but it happens - are going to dislike you, distrust you, fear you.”
Lee is behind such dynamic comic book figures as The Hulk, Fantastic Four and X-Men - which Professor X and Magneto were inspired greatly by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcom X respectively.
Spider-Man 3 villain Sandman is being played by Academy Award nominated actor Thomas Haden Church. Church recently spoke with the
Whittier Daily News about the impact of taking on such an iconic role in one of the biggest franchise in film history.
“I thought I heard my 2-year-old daughter say, ‘Spider-Man, Spider-Man,’ the other day,” says Church. “Turns out she was asking for ‘vitamin, vitamin.’ My fianc?e and I were conjoined in a moment of relief. We don’t want her to be too much into papa’s work.”
In preparing for the role of Flint Marko, aka Sandman, Church looked to another Hollywood icon for inspiration. “The more research I did into the character, the more I thought about Lon Chaney Jr., the way he was, his presence in movies,” Church says. ”Also the innocence of Frankenstein before he was regarded as a monster. He was a simple, accidental character. His fate was wrought in the hands of someone else.” Sam Raimi, in an interview with IGN, reiterated Church’s thoughts on Sandman. ”He is a real human being that something extraordinary happens to and he has goals that are outside of those goals that are sometimes attributed to movie and comic supervillains,” says Raimi. ”He wants nothing to do with dominating the world or the United States or the government. He really just wants what is best for him and his family. He doesn’t consider himself to be a villain necessarily.”
Church solidified his role of Sandman when giving his acceptance speech for a supporting actor award for Sideways at the Broadcast Film Critics Awards dinner. “(Raimi) and (producer) Laura Ziskin were really taken with the acceptance speech and thought I’d be great to play Sandman,” Church explains. ”Somehow that speech told them I was the guy. We met the next week, and I was offered the part. I told Sam, ‘I’ve got to give more acceptance speeches.’”
The
New York Daily News has reported that
Spider-Man 3 star James Franco may have been partly responsible for actress Lindsay Lohan’s recent entry into alcohol and drug rehab. The young actress has reportedly been infatuated with Franco since meeting him at the A
Prairie Home Companion premiere in June.
Franco and Lohan were both guests at Prince’s Golden Globes after-party at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. “Most people were in a good mood,” says a source. “Except for (Lohan). She seemed lost. She was trying to get James’ attention, and he wouldn’t give her anything. She was smoking a lot, not drinking in front of him, and then she went into a bedroom. From there, she went back to trying to get James’ attention again, and he was ignoring her. She ran out crying, with the girlfriend following her.” Lohan was reportedly found passed out in the hotel lobby early the next morning and checked into the Wonderland Center in Los Angeles the next day.
Photo from the movie Spider-Man 3. SP3 Wallpaper
Photo from the movie Spider-Man 3. Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson
Photo from the movie Spider-Man 3. Mary Jane shines on Broadway
Photo from the movie Spider-Man 3. Flint Marko Becomes Sandman
Monday, January 29, 2007
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