Tuesday, April 3, 2001

SPIDER-MAN MOVIE UPDATE

Spider-Man producer Laura Ziskin will be featured Saturday on E!'s What Is a Producer? special.

Promo spots for the special showed clips from the Spider-Man set, including Ziskin talking to director Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire and James Franco during a scene.

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Here's how E! describes the show:

"E! Entertainment Television in cooperation with the Producers Guild of America answers the age-old question: 'What exactly does a producer do?' To get the answers, E! went to the top producers in feature film and network television, including industry heavyweights like Jerry Bruckheimer (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor) and Sex and the City's Darren Star. Plus, learn what producers do in preproduction, production and postproduction, and see what actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tobey Maguire have to say about their relationships with producers."

The special starts at 8 p.m. (ET) on Saturday and will be replayed Sunday at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

In other Spider-Man movie news:

* Look for extensive coverage of the film in upcoming issues of Ultimate Marvel Magazine.

* X-Men director Bryan Singer will be visiting the Spider-Man set.

MUTANT X TV UPDATE

Three of the five lead roles for the Mutant X television series have been cast, although the actors' names have not been released yet.

"We want to finalize the whole cast before any announcements," Marvel Studios' Rick Ungar, an executive producer, told The Continuum.

So far, Mutant X has been cleared in 86 percent of the United States through syndication.

Ungar told The Continuum that Mutant X should begin production in Toronto in June.

JINGLE BELLE IN THE SUMMER

Paul Dini told The Continuum that he is teaming with Alison Dare's Jason Bone on a Jingle Belle one-shot, The Mighty Elves, from Oni Press this summer.

"Jing joins the worst team in the UAHL (United Arctic Hockey League) as a way of working off her pent-up aggressions," Dini said. "It turns out Jing's a demon with a hockey stick, and even though she spends most of each game in the penalty box for grotesquely unnecessary roughness, her team starts winning big. Hilarity ensues."

Dini explained part of the inspiration for The Mighty Elves,

"The story sort of grew out of the last conversation I had with Charles Schulz two years ago," Dini said. "I asked him how his hockey game was and he said, 'Great! I'm 76 and I've never played better.'

"He then proceeded to give me a hard time for hanging up my skates at 13 when my vision changed and it got harder for me to see the puck, not to mention the bigger kids crashing into me. After a 10-minute lecture on high-impact prescription goggles and where to get them, Sparky made me promise I'd get my butt back on the ice.

"I haven't yet, but this story is kind of a first step back into the rink."

FANDOM.COM SHUTS DOWN

Debra Streicker-Fine, CEO of Fandom, announced Monday that the company is shutting down its online operations.

Fandom.com had several comics- and genre-related sites.

Fandom's offline properties, Cinescape and Creation Entertainment, will continue to operate, according to a release from the company.

"For the last three months we have had productive meetings and a series of opportunities to take Fandom to the next level, but the depressed marketplace has forced many companies to close, especially affecting online companies," Streicker-Fine said. "We expect our offline companies, Cinescape and Creation, to continue."

FIRST LOOK: THE RETURN OF ALISON DARE, LITTLE MISS ADVENTURES #1

The Return of Alison Dare, Little Miss Adventures #1 will arrive in comics stores this month from Oni Press.

The three-issue mini-series is written by J. Torres, with art by J. Bone, and follows up a one-shot last September featuring Alison, the young daughter of a superhero and a world-famous archaeologist/adventurer.

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"The fun of writing this book is the lack of constraints," Torres said. "With the occupations her parents are in, Alison can literally end up going anywhere. The first issue sees her traveling to a fictional country in Saudi Arabia, and each subsequent issue will see her in a different environment, on a different mission."

The mini-series will also give readers the opportunity to get better acquainted with the book's large cast of characters. Alison has an uncle who is an international spy, she attends a boarding school where not all is as it seems, and she often drags her best friends, Wendy and Dot, along for the ride.

The first issue will be 32 black-and-white pages and will cost $2.95.

BRIEFLY