In an ending worthy of a comic-book cliffhanger, Spider-Man has been rescued from the clutches of . . . lawyers.
The nearly eight-year legal battle over the movie rights to the last major untapped superhero ended Monday on the eve of trial, with MGM relinquishing its claim to the rights in favor of Columbia Pictures, which said it would move swiftly to place the property into production.
"The idea is to do it now, as fast as we can," said Amy Pascal, Columbia's president. "It's a big tent-pole movie."
Pascal was referring to widely held expectations for the prospects of a big-budget picture featuring the Marvel Comics superhero, who is probably the most popular pulp-fiction figure still unexploited by Hollywood.
Columbia's parent, Sony Pictures Entertainment, also won the rights to produce sequels to the initial picture and a live-action television series. Sony and Marvel Enterprises also said they would establish a 50-50 joint venture to license Spider-Man-related merchandise, including toys, games and apparel, that could generate billions of dollars in revenues.
The deal also may give Columbia something that many observers believe it lacks--the foundation of a long-term movie franchise on the order of Warner Bros.' Batman or MGM's James Bond.
"We believe that Spider-Man is the most remarkable potential franchise that has been unmined to date," said Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Calley in an interview.
Marvel, for its part, gets the chance to give its most colorful and popular character the worldwide exposure that can come only from a big-budget live-action feature. To Marvel executives, that means the close of a period of stagnation and bankruptcy that began after corporate raider Ronald Perelman, who bought the company in 1989, tried unsuccessfully to build it into an entertainment conglomerate.
"This symbolizes that Marvel's on the move again," said Eric Ellenbogen, president and chief executive officer of Marvel Enterprises.
A Web of Legal Claims
Spider-Man was first introduced by Marvel in 1962 in the character of Peter Parker, a high school senior bitten by a radioactive spider. This bite gave him the proportional strength and agility of a spider along with a keen "spider sense."
