The Amazing Spider-Man

[Inner-Demon]

New Series To Premiere Early 2008 on Kids WB-

Press Release-

Spider-Man swings back into television action in early 2008 as an animated series from Culver Entertainment to air on Kids’ WB! on The CW, it was announced today by Kids’ WB! Senior Vice President and General Manager Betsy McGowen and Sony Pictures Television Co-President Zack Van Amburg.

Tentatively titled “The Amazing Spider-Man,” the new series is being produced by Culver Entertainment. Greg Weisman (“Gargoyles”, “The Batman”) is supervising producer, Victor Cook (“Hellboy: Blood and Iron” and “Buzz Lightyear of Star Command”) is producer/supervising director. The series will premiere on Kids’ WB! on The CW, the No.1 rated Saturday morning kids broadcast slate.

“The addition of ‘Spider-Man’ bolsters a lineup that has proved to be the Saturday morning destination for kids seeking action and adventure in the most amped-up ways,” McGowen said. “We’re ecstatic to welcome ‘Spider-Man’ to our popular cavalcade of super heroes.”

"Spider-Man is such an important brand for Sony Pictures and we're thrilled to keep the momentum going by taking it back to television with an animated series on Kids’ WB!," Van Amburg said. "It's also an excellent way to launch Culver Entertainment, our newest television company."

Riding the crest of Sony’s anticipated summer blockbuster “Spider-Man 3,” the new animated series picks up the original web-slinger’s mythology at the beginning of his hero’s journey – as a not-so-typical 16-year-old entering his junior year of high school. Having spent the summer engaging common criminals with his new-found powers, Peter Parker must conceal his secret identity while engaging a new level of terror – the multi-leveled pressures of teenage life at home and school while combating bigger, badder super-villains in the real world.

“Our goal is to reinterpret these great characters and concepts for our millennium,” Weisman said. “We’ll have plenty of resonant material for the Spider-Man fan, while engaging the Spider-Man novice with the same thrills we experienced when we were first exposed to the character. Our stories will appeal on multiple levels with plenty of eye-candy, action, humor and colorful characters for the youngest demographic balanced with extensive character development for ‘tweens, teens and adults.”

Culver Entertainment is a Sony Pictures Television company. Sony Pictures Television is one of the television industry’s leading content providers. It produces and distributes programming in every genre, including series, telefilms, theatrical releases and family entertainment for network and cable television, as well as first-run and off-network series for syndication. With more than 25 programs on the air, SPT boasts a program slate that includes the top-rated daytime dramas and game shows, landmark off-network series, original animated series and critically acclaimed primetime dramas, comedies and telefilms. SPT (www.sonypicturestelevision.com) is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company.

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Sounds like it might actually be good. It certainly has alot of potential. A 16 Spidey is something we've never seen on television before, so hopefully this will be one of the greats.

 

[antiformkeyblade]

oh goody! this sounds great. i remember the old spiderman cartoon. but all the way in 08? well i hope its worth the wait. what am i saying? of course it will!

 

[Dawning Twilight]

so long as they don;t screw it up it should be good of course it's aimed at a completely different generation like The Batman was so it'll probably be bad.

 

[Inner-Demon]

That's pretty silly to jump to that point. Animation is always changing, and Spider-Man won't be a repeat of The Batman, since The Batman will still be airing in 2008. Amazing Spider-Man is being headed by Sony, rumored to be starting with a 13 Episode first season, and they have alot of good people behind them.

Plus it's Sony, they've always treated Spider-Man with respect. The Batman is made in house by WB, WB will have no hands in Spider-Man, except they'll be the network airing it. So I wouldn't be too worried.

 

[Haywire]

i look fowdard to it. i like to watch the old episodes that my uncle taped back when they were on. and if sony is heaidng it that should be good just like you sid inner-demon be treated with some deserved respect.

 

[Inner-Demon]

Greg Weisman Discusses The Amazing Spider-Man-

As supervising producer, Greg has alot on his shoulders, he's one of the prime guys in the series. And from his statements, we have alot to look forward to. Here are some of the things Weisman spoke about concerning Spidey:

I find that a lot of the series sort of start with Peter older and if you go back to the original Lee/Ditko stuff, he's in high school and so we're going back to the beginning with a clean slate. It's 2008 and we want the show to be very contemporary, but otherwise think 1962. We want this to be the beginning of the universe: there aren't a lot of superheroes out there, there aren't super villains, this is not a world jam packed with costumed characters. When we first meet Peter in our series he'll have been Spider-Man for four months, mostly over summer vacation.

Uncle Ben's death is still a painful thing for him, but not a fresh wound. We're going to literally open the series on the night before his first day of high school, and we're going to meet all the classic supporting cast, introduce the villains for the first time. Spider-Man is going to get taken to school in every way you can think of, which is the theme for our series: the education of Peter Parker. That's the approach we're going to take, to have that kind of fun with the character. Of course things will get grim during the course of the series, but we're not going to introduce it that way.

He then spoke about where the influences lay in the series:

Well my attitude is that a good idea is a good idea is a good idea. If Bendis did something we like in "Ultimate Spider-Man" then I won't be shy about stealing from him like I steal from Lee, or Ditko, or Romita [laughs]. Likewise, if there's an idea in the films that we like, we'll integrate it into this series. But we're not doing "Ultimate Spider-Man" or the Spider-Man movies. We're trying to create a series, and what I'm about to say — I know, please don't disconnect the context here. I know it's going to sound arrogant, naïve or both — but we're trying to create the classic Spider-Man series, the one that ten years from now people will look back and say, "wow, that was Spider-Man." I recognize that I might be kidding myself and I realize that we've set a large goal for ourselves, but the goal is to create something contemporary and timeless. The bible for us is the old stuff and if there's a good current idea, we'll grab it and give credit where it's due. I'm not shy about giving credit where it's due. We want to have fun with the show and have something with a timeless feel, so we're taking these characters from the series, contemporizing them and bringing them into the 21st Century, having fun with them.

He then went to speak about the characters and changes to the series:

We're getting rid of Peter Parker and changing his costume to a light pink bunny suit. But otherwise… [laughs] We're not doing those things. I have sort of my own compass on things and I'm not changing things to change things, but we want to find a way to surprise our audience here and there while also creating something that people can look back at and say, "Wow." That's not about wholesale changes or trying to reinvent the wheel in some way, because it's a pretty great wheel to begin with.

I fundamentally come from a place of respecting the material to begin with so I'm not this guy who goes, "Spider-Man sucks, we need to fix it." I don't believe that. This is a show fundamentally about character, human beings and I respect this cast immensely from Peter all the way to Flash Thompson, who's a good guy and will be a war veteran down the line. I respect the character. I respect J Jonah Jameson and I respect the villains. That's the place we're coming from, a place of respect.

I must say, if Weisman is any indication, this may just become as timeless and iconic as the old Batman series, and it's certainly something we need right now in animation.

 

[Swag]

Does the show have a release date yet? And it's airing on the WB right?

 

[Inner-Demon]

Spring 2008, it's still too early to give an exact release. And yeah, it'll air on Kids WB.

 

[Vice]

I'm so possitve that there gonna make Spider-Man look like the worst cartoon Ever. I mean the Last Spider-Man Series back in the day was Amazing because it was based off the Actually Comic "The Amazing Spider-Man"

Now if this new Series is gonna be animated like the short lived Spider-Man 2099 im gonna be so pissed because it was so Bad.

Anyway i wouldent be shocked if it sucks balls beyond belief, Just like all the other cartoons i grew up on

 

[Inner-Demon]

You really are a moron. Did you not read anything of the interview with Greg Weisman, this is based off of the COMICS for god's sake, like all Spider-Man have been. Spider-Man Unlimited was based off the comic of the same style and design, it was terrible, they all knew it. This show is going to be different.

And even the older series wasn't based entirely off the comics, it took alot of damn liberties and sucked then too. The entire team behind the series have done some of the best work on animation, from Hellboy to Gargoyles, so yeah, it's going to rock.

 

[pwolf]

love this show wish they still showed it

 

[violent_anger]

what's going to happen with that flying squirrel webbing under his arms? i just started the comics, so i dont know if they ever got rid of that.