Unraveling Spider-Man's Tangled Web
After lawsuits and bankruptcies delayed the superhero's big-screen debut for 17 years, Sony may finally have a franchise with legs
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By Ronald Grover
One of this summer's hottest films is likely to be Spider-Man, the $139 million extravaganza from Sony's Columbia Pictures scheduled for release on May 3. Spider-Man is the superhero who used to swing from the pages of Marvel Comics, catching bad guys with spider webs that sprang from his wrists. The big-screen version is getting heavy buzz and will get the customarily heavy summer season off to an early start, two weeks before it has to do battle with George Lucas' much-awaited Star Wars: Episode 2 -- Attack of the Clones.