Results tagged “spiderman”

After brutally cracking down on Superman and Batman, Gotham cops have been inexplicably looking the other way on a rival superhero's antics. For the past month and a half, Spider-Man has been running around downtown and in Times Square with a rickshaw. But check out this crazy video: Spidey isn't just pulling a rickshaw, he's using it to propel himself through the air, off the sides of buildings, and parked cars!

An ex-con who is suspected of robbing over a dozen homes throughout the East Village and Lower East Side was feeling so cocky while hanging out inside the East 10th Street apartment he was hitting up that he decided to have a little shirts-off time and take a snooze. When the super of the building found his cellphone and t-shirt behind, cops were able to use DNA testing on the shirt to nail 45-year-old Ramon Pacheco. One police source said Pacheco would use acrobatics to get inside hard-to-reach spots in apartments, taking "laptops, iPods and cameras," telling the Post, "He's kind of like a Spider-Man. Sometimes he's kicking in windows. Sometimes he's going through skylights. One time, he kicked in an air conditioner and crawled inside the apartment."

Broadway is suffering, people! This summer attendance was down 9.3%, compared with the same period a year ago. Even with more expensive tickets, box office grosses were down 2.9%, to just under $290.9 million. So producer Ken Davenport isn't just being a drama queen when he tells Crain's, "We have far fewer butts in seats, and that concerns me. This summer wasn't good, and we're on target for a drop at the end of this season." Davenport produced four shows on Broadway last season but this fall he's only doing one—David Mamet's Oleanna, a two-hander starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles. Other producers are hoping celebs like Daniel Craig, Jude Law, and, ugh, Catherine Zeta-Jones can bring the butts back.

But director Julie Taymor says ugh, stop calling it a musical. The Broadway adaptation of the Marvel comic, with a score by U2's Bono and The Edge, is going to be a "circus rock-'n'-roll drama." Taymor, Bono, and other members of the creative team held a presentation for ticket brokers yesterday, and the Post's Michael Riedel weaseled in. Actors sang six songs from the show, which has the irritatingly nonsensical title Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, and Taymor insisted that Spider-Man "is not going to sing and dance in tights." Riedel opines that one of the musical numbers—er, circus-rock anthems—is "as good as any rock ballad in Rent," and it seems he means that as a compliment. And who do we have to thank for all this? Andrew Lloyd Webber, of course. Bono revealed that he was motivated to do the score after hearing the Starlight Express creator express gratitude to rock musicians "for leaving me alone for 25 years. I've had the theater all to myself." Bono added, "We've decided to give Andrew a little competition." But Webber's not sweating it; he's got his Phantom of the Opera sequel coming soon, God have mercy on our souls.

Comic book nerds and fans of Barack Obama: get psyched. USA Today reports that on January 14th, "Marvel Comics is releasing a special issue of Amazing Spider-Man #583 with Obama depicted on the cover. Inside are five pages of the two teaming up and even a fist-bump between Spidey and the new president." It's been speculated that Obama has an inner comic book geek underneath his presidential suits, and he even mentioned the webbed one during his campaigning. Presidents have appeared in comics before, and Marvel says, "This is not so much a pro-Obama statement but a tip of the hat to having a Spider-Man fan in the White House." Related: Stephen Colbert left Spider-Man #573 on his shelf for President-elect Obama to come and get.

Broadway insiders say Julie Taymor is out of control on the set—er, rehearsal studio—of the upcoming musical adaptation of Spider-Man. The projected budget has soared to $40 million so far, with sources telling the Posts's Michael Riedel, "She doesn't care what it costs. Does not care at all. Her attitude is: It's for the art, and you don't question artists." To be sure, with music by U2's Bono and the Edge and direction from the Tony-winning Taymor, Spider-Man could easily be the most fabulous piece of, um, art on Broadway since Capeman. But Riedel predicts that with a weekly running cost of $1 million, the show would "have to run about 8,000 years" to break even. Producers are supposedly eying the big Hilton Theatre for a 2009 opening—they just need the current occupant, Young Frankenstein, to admit defeat.

The Dark Knight has officially opened, and the figures are in: the NY Times reports that the movie took in "$18.5 million in gross revenue at its 12 a.m. opening screenings early Friday morning at 3,040 screens, the most ever for midnight shows." Gawker laments about the movie taking the title from 2005's Star Wars, Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith, which previously held it for racking up $16.9 million at 2,915 screens. Meanwhile, the single-day box office record previously held by Spider-Man 3 was also shattered: The Dark Knight took in $66.4 million on opening day (to Spidey's $59.8 million).

Forget The Dark Knight – the hype is already giving way to disappointment. It’s time to start getting really, really excited about Spider-Man the Musical, which will feature a score by U2’s Bono and the Edge and direction from Julie Taymor of Lion King fame. In May, Marvel Executive Peter Cuneo announced that the show could open as soon as next year, with Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood – Taymor’s stars in Across the Universe – playing Peter Parker and Mary Jane.

After two incidents of X-treme attention whoring Thursday afternoon, cops were stationed around the perimeter of the New York Times building on 41st St. Friday, successfully preventing anyone else from taking a shot at scaling the side of the new skyscraper. Famous urban climber Alain Robert drew quite a crowd as he climbed up the side of the building around noon and then unfurled a banner decrying the human toll of global warming. The spectacle drew quite a police response and large crowds of spectators. Robert was released on bail shortly after being removed from the side of the building.

Residents of Washington Heights may be able to sleep a little easier soon. Police are talking to a "person of interest" in a pair of sex assaults where the attacker climbs up fire escapes, enters apartments through unlocked windows, and assaults sleeping women. The suspect is being investigated for incidents (possibly more) on July 19 at 4:45 a.m. and again on July 20 at 5 a.m. Both incidents occurred near West 175th Street and Broadway. In both cases, the women screamed, scaring off their attacker.

Spiderman, Mortal Kombat, Sonic Underground. No, it's not FOX's Saturday morning line up, it's Terence Taylor's resume. Before jumping into horror, the Brooklyn born author spent over a decade writing and producing children's programming . From his days as one of the few black students at St. John's University, to his years writing Gulah Gulah's Island and Arthur, Taylor's story reveals the seemingly random events that often lead to a career in television and writing, the things he learned along the way, as well as the current nature of Kid's TV.

The last free-standing diner in Manhattan is closing tomorrow night after 70 years in business, and like many displaced New Yorkers it will be moving to Pennsylvania. The Moondance Diner in SoHo is shuttering, and next month it will be shipped to PA to become part of a museum. The lot where it currently sits is going to become the site of luxury condos. The New York Sun reported the imminent demise of the Moondance back in February and noted the diner's end as emblematic of the westward expansion of the fashionable SoHo district.

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:

The Sanitation Chronicles, a new play by and about New York’s Strongest, premiered on Wednesday. Actor/playwright Paul Brno, who’s been moonlighting for the Department of Sanitation for the past 17 years, says “every day is still a great day to be on a garbage truck.” The “slice of life” play explores the daily prejudices, anger and violence faced by “Sanmen”, all of which is exacerbated when one of the guys shows up for work dressed as a lady. [Tickets.]

At the end of this month, your friendly neighborhood Spider Man will be all over New York for...Spider Man week! A five-borough-wide celebration (marketing ploy) featuring a ton of live events, screenings, parties and exhibits. The city has been central to the Marvel Comics legend since Spidey's beginning in 1962, so it only makes sense to launch the latest movie here.

We're guessing most of you are hungover from St. Patrick's Day. We are too. But still, we're going to muddle on through our green haze and give you (drum roll please...) this Week In -ists.

While filing out of the Laura Pels Theatre after Patrick Marber’s Howard Katz, a woman of a certain age was heard exclaiming, “A tour de force!” Having brandished that over-ripe phrase myself on probably too many occasions, I was amazed to hear it applied to the play we’d just sat through. Had I been misusing it all this time? Was the expression actually French for “a total waste of time”?

Scoping out movie sets is practically a city-wide past time in New York and today in the movie pales in comparison to parking parity.

New York is literally brimming with Tobey Maguire sightings this week. Apparently Spiderman 3 is shooting around town, and we've been receiving dozens of sightings and reports. Today, Brian Van sent in this shot, along with a report:

Roosevelt Island has many advantages - it's cheaper than Manhattan and has some gorgeous skyline views. However, we just heard that a tram has been stuck over water for the past 40 minutes and that emergency services has been requested to help remove passengers. And, thus, we were reminded why we do not live there. And will emergency services use rappling hooks, dust off their jet packs or just call Spiderman? There is, however, the F train.

Today's map comes from Marvel Comics, by way of the Travel Channel's New York City page. Click on the little circles to learn about all the superhero hotspots-- Doctor Strange's mansion in Greenwich Village, Daredevil's apartment in Hell's Kitchen, the spot in Central Park where the Punisher's family was murdered, and of course, Forest Hills, where Spiderman grew up. The map also mentions that the Thing grew up on the Lower East Side. That makes perfect sense, because we recently learned that he's Jewish. Does that make him the earliest Jewish superhero?

- And contributions to Governor Pataki's presidential aspirational fund have been slowing down

New York City as Ohio? The NY Times says it's so, as film productions take advantage of the city's new tax breaks to encourage production money come to the Big Apple. Freelance location scout Mark Bodnar ran down how the city can be transformed into almost anywhere:

For the rural South? "I'd head to Rockaway Beach and all those great abandoned Army barracks there."

Continue reading "NYC As Everywhere"

The police are looking for a rapist who has attacked three women in Manhattan this month. In all instances, the attacker, who the local tabloids are calling the Spiderman Rapist, has entered through an open window, so police are asking women to make sure their windows are closed and air-conditioners are secure. The rapist would blindfold the victims with a t-shirt or sheets, so there have been only sketchy descriptions of him. The incidents have occured on East 89th Street, West 87th between Riverside and West End, and then East 89th Street again. Anyone with information should call the police at (800) 577-TIPS.

Best Action Sequence: In what seems like audiences expressing a subtle distaste for the west coast, The Day After Tomorrow’s "Destruction of Los Angeles" won, beating Spiderman's New York "Subway Battle."

Andy Friedman, Slideshow Poet, Painter, Artististic Visionary

Spiderman 3 Director Sam Raimi announced that lanky 70’s Show guy has just joined Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunset in the cast of Spider-Man 3. "Topher Grace is an extraordinarily talented actor," said Raimi, "and will be perfect for the complexities of the role we are developing."

On Sunday, Al Leiter faced Cubs ace Kerry Wood with Leiter getting some help from the offense early. The Mets picked up three runs in the first inning off Wood, who was less than steady. Leiter pitched six strong innings of two hit ball, giving up two runs in the fourth inning, which could have been worse. With bases loaded, Leiter got a called third strike against Moises Alou that ended the inning, allowing the Mets to go on and win, 3-2 (box score).

Because of yesterday's strange and ultimately hilarious for us - since we're not a recognized government or royal figure in Britain - stunt that involved a man dressed as Batman staging a protest at Buckingham Palace, Gothamist thought it a great opportunity to look at the meaning of Gotham City. Wikipedia's definiton:

Gotham City is a fictional city appearing in DC Comics, best known as the home of Batman. At one point, DC placed Gotham City in the state of New Jersey, though its features and location have been altered at times due to the capricious nature of the writers, editors and storyline. Gotham is known to be architecturally modeled after New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but with more exaggerated vices. It has been said that, metaphoricaly, Metropolis (home to Superman) is New York during the day, and Gotham is New York at night. This comparison is helped by the fact that Metropolis is more often seen during the day, and Gotham more at night. Longtime Batman writer and editor Dennis O'Neil has also said figuratively that Metropolis is New York above 14th St., and that Gotham City is New York below 14th St.

Buboo Kakati, Filmmaker