Welcome to the four hundred and ninth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous four hundred and eight. This week, who is Scott Seva and how close did he come to portraying Spider-Man on film? Did Jerry Siegel almost write "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" Finally, what behind the scenes reason led to the whole "Ms. Marvel gives birth to her own boyfriend" plot in Avengers #200?

Let's begin!

NOTE: The column is on three pages, a page for each legend. There's a little "next" button on the top of the page and the bottom of the page to take you to the next page (and you can navigate between each page by just clicking on the little 1, 2 and 3 on the top and the bottom, as well).

COMIC LEGEND: Actor Scott Leva was cast as Spider-Man in the ill-fated 1989 Cannon film adaptaton of Spider-Man.

STATUS: I'm Going With False

Recently, over as Movie Urban Legends Revealed, I wrote about how the cult classic Jean-Claude Van Damme film Cyborg was made using the sets and costumes from two ill-fated films, a sequel to Masters of the Universe and a Spider-Man film. Speaking about the Spider-Man film, director Albert Pyun failed to recall who was set to play Peter Parker in the film. Reader Brad noted: Actor / stuntman Scott Leva was cast as Spider-Man in the Cannon film.

Is that true?

Leva's face should be known to fans of Spider-Man in the mid-1980s, as Leva (who was working as a Hollywood stunt man at the time) appeared as Spider-Man on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #262 in 1985...



Cannon's approach to Spider-Man at the time was an odd one. They kept making announcements about how they WERE going to do a Spider-Man movie, but they never actually progressed to far in actually MAKING one.

They even made a promo clip at one point...

Around this time, Leva was, indeed, considered for the role. He even did the following test shots...





However, he was never actually cast in the role.

Now, Ted Newsom, one of the original screenwriters on the proposed Spider-Man film, stopped by in the comments section and he had such a fascinating take on the whole Spider-Man film story that I'm just going to put his thoughts about the film into this section in place of what originally me doing a bare bones review of what happened to the proposed film. Clearly, he knows more about what happened than I do, so this is much more informative. So here is Ted Newsom in what I like to call "Spider-Man: Descent Into Production Hell."

First, on the evolution of the script...

Everyone liked our script: Joe, Cannon, Stan Lee, even Marvel, which was very persnickety. Potential casting was discussed, very early and continuously, but nothing was set (as you point out.) So, naturally, in the eternal logic of Hollywood, we were fired and Joe brought in a friend he’d worked with before, Barney Cohen.

Scott Leva was indeed in the running, if the choice was to go with an “unknown.” My partner suggested a then-unknown Tom Cruise (considering we were basically thinking the John Romita style, he would’ve been perfect). Stan liked Scott, too. I met him at the SDCC were we were hyping the project.

Barney’s rewrite was still very much our story and characters, with the addition of a (to me, incredibly annoying) sidekick to Doc Ock, and giving Ock a catchphrase “Okey-dokey” (which we’d used once, in the mouth of a minor character. The major action remained intact. Barney added a couple more at Joe’s suggestion.

After Menachem peed on the fire hydrant a little (he added a couple of loony lines of dialogue, and a non-canonical scene where Spidey beats the crap out of Flash for eyeballing the girl), the script was okayed and went into pre-production. At that time, it bore the names “Ted Newsom & John Brancato, Barney Cohen and Joseph Goldman [Golan's pen name].

There was a year’s worth of prep, supervised by Joe. Every shot in the film was boarded out like a giant comic. The main action pieces were illustrated by Harper Goff, one of the greatest designers of all time [Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, for one instance.] Joe went from Hollywood to Rome to London to South Carolina (!) looking for the right place to shoot a big FX-laden film. In all, Cannon spent close to a million dollars in prep, extremely unusual for them. The budget was roughly $20 million (again, REALLY unusual for them.) It was a “Go” project… until…

The Cannon boys ran into the Salkinds in Cannes. They’d taken a bath with Superman III and Supergirl, and offered to sell the franchise. Unlike his ignorance of Spider-Man (Menachem was just a touch too old to have grown up reading Marvel. Just a couple years, but it made the difference), Golan knew what Superman was about. Cannon bought the franchise. They wooed Chris Reeve back with a promise of a great deal of dough and input into the script. And simultaneously, they bought the “Masters of the Universe” franchise from Mattel, another pricey effects project with an equally price upfront payment to the toy company.

Cannon had grand plans, but 3 gigantic budget movies were too much for even them. Spider-Man was the one which suffered. They slashed the budget from $20 million down to about eight. That is the point at which Joe Zito said, “I can’t do this project for that kind of money. You need to find another director.”

So after about two years and a lot of money spent on prep, Cannon had a series of three writers do much-scaled-down versions of the script. All were contractually rewrites of the existing material, with certain character and dialogue consistencies. All were minus any elaborate special effects action sequences (too expensive). Best of the three was Ethan (HOUSE and HOUSE 2) Wiley’s take, in which Peter really doesn’t become Spidey until the last sequence.

This was the period during which Albert Pyun became involved. He had a record of getting films done on time, that’s the nicest I can say about him. He’s probably a really nice guy. He had done CAPTAIN AMERICA for Cannon, using a truly terrible script by Michael Winner, who was scheduled to direct at that time. When I say terrible, I’m siding with Marvel, which let Cannon know their displeasure in the same letter which praised our Spidey to the heavens.

and then on what happened when Cannon couldn't make the film (and ended up using the sets for Cyborg, as noted earlier)...

Yes and no. Cannon never really “cancelled” the film. When Cannon had fatal money problems, its founding cousins split, Yoram Globas throwing in with some crook over at MGM, Golan going off on his own. In lieu of severance (which Cannon could not have paid anyway), Golan held onto “Spider-Man” and threw out the low-budget scripts, returning to the original draft (well, to Barney’s rewrite of our stuff.) He pitched it to Columbia, which loved it but (of course) wanted a rewrite. They hired Frank LaLoggis (LADY IN WHITE) who rewrote our script (still with our and Barney’s name on it) but walked away when the Golan people started being crazy. They then hired Neil Ruttenberg (a client of our agent) and he did yet another pass, though he still claims never to have read our draft. I like Neil, but he’s mistaken (The telltale sign being the presence of Ock’s idiot henchman, created by Barney Cohen). And the coverage at Columbia said of the three scripts “They’re all basically the same story.” (Neil gave me a copy of the coverage from Columbia.)

But then at Cannes again, Menachem crossed paths with the crooks from Carolco, who outbid Columbia and had grand plans. (They distributed through Columbia Tri-Star anyway). He’d spent a year as “New Cannon” selling off the ancillary rights piecemeal (like TV and video) to raise money, not an uncommon practice. He’d take second chair at Carolco, but with the promise of a producer credit.

Cameron agreed to put Spider-Man on his plate, but refused tot have Golan’s name on the movie, or the ads. Carolco had used a previous agreement with him which gave him this right , but they’d also contractually promised Golan the credit. Led to… oh… a slight feeling of betrayal on Golan’s part. And a lawsuit.

Carolco also wanted to sell off ancillary and other rights at their own price, so they told the companies which in good faith had bought them from Golan to go fly a kite. More lawsuits.

MGM (which had bought Cannon, at least in name) claimed continuing rights to Spider-Man because the previous Cannon (or maybe New Cannon) was a little late on renewing their option payments to Marvel. MGM claimed the rights to the franchise, so did Golan & Carolco. Yet another lawsuit.

Cameron would not get his million dollar writer’s fee unless he delivered a full screenplay to Carolco “… which could, in their estimation, be budgeted at sixty million dollars or less.” (That’s a quote directly from their deal memo) They were not about to get caught out with a project that went over, and Mr. Cameron had a history of… oh… shall we say… excess? You cannot properly budget a teatment or an outline. You need a complete screenplay, which a production guy can go through line by line to anticipate cost.

Cameron did a marvelously expedient thing. He simply had the top sheet of the existing script retyped and added his name to the list of writers. The script cover now said “Screenplay by Ted Newson [sic], Barry [sic] Cohen and James Cameron” and underneath that, “… and John Brancato, Joseph Goldmari [sic] and James Cameron”– the misspelled names juggled cleverly so it appeared the cinema genius had gone through two complete sets of writers to create his masterwork (none of us ever even met Cameron, much less write with him.). The weird, non-existent name “Joseph Goldmari” was a typo in the process of altering the authorship. The Golan script had a Xerox error on it, blanking out a tiny bit of the “N” in “Goldman.”

In fact, it was absolutely the same script which had been completed budgeted and in prep at Cannon for a year, exactly the same script Menechem Golan had pitched to Columbia, precisely the same script Carolco had bought. It was a Xerox, with not a word changed, only the credits on the top sheet.

And since Golan had properly budgeted the script at thirty million dollars, all you had to do was double that, and Carolco okayed it. They obviously knew the shady deal Cameron pulled, but what the heck. So he made his million dollars by delivering a script. Nothing in the deal memo said he actually had to WRITE it.

So our script– rather Barney’s rewrite of our script– was still intact as far down the line as the Carolco period.

Months after that, Cameron (or more likely, a writer pal working for him in anonymity) delivered his “scriptment,” a 40 page story which cobbled assorted bits from every previous draft, particularly ours, Frank LaLoggia’s, Ethan Wiley’s, and as far back as Leslie Stevens.

Carolco’s own financial troubles exceeded the ones at Cannon, and Carolco went massively bankrupt. MGM scooped up the Spider-Man rights, including ALL previous drafts. Columbia (still eager to do the movie Golan had pitched back in 1989), dealt separately with Marvel to buy movie rights.

Both studios claimed to have the right to make Spidey, just as (ironically enough) both studios claimed to have the rights to make James Bond. Sony/Columbia’s head guy John Calley, had been chief at MGM/UA for years, and knew of the loophole in the 007 saga: Kevin McClory still had the rights to Thunderball and a boatload of original material done by him, Ian Fleming and Jack Whittingham in 1958-60, prior to the first Bond movie. Calley announced Columbia would make an alternative James Bond series.

MGM/UA panicked. Though Bond films only came out every 2 to 3 years, they kept the company alive. A rival series would destroy the company. A big swap was arranged, MGM/UA getting the rights to “the McClory Bond material,” which included SPECTRE), Sony/Columbia getting full rights to Spidey– including rights and options on all previous scripts in the family tree.

Sony/Columbia cautiously exercised the option on only what was termed “the Cameron material,” described explicitly as a 40 page treatment by James Cameron and a 115 page screenplay credited to “Ted Newsom, John Brancato, Barney Cohen, Joseph Goldman and James Cameron.” In other words, Columbia [in theory] never received copies of all the interim drafts, just those two items. I’d guess they figured the Cameron treatment came first, out of which the screenplay was expanded, which is the usual and logical procedure. In this case, it was backward.

And that, true believers, is the beginning of the story!!! Excelsior!!!

Wow, quite a story, Ted! Thanks for sharing!

In any event, as to the legend at hand - was Leva cast? No.

Leva, by the way, went on to develop a new air bag mechanism to help stuntmen that actually won him a Technical Oscar in 2006! Very impressive!

Thanks to Brad for the suggestion! And thanks to Ted Newsom for his intricate explanation of the history of the proposed Cannon Films Spider-Man movie!

Check out some Entertainment Urban Legends Revealed!

Was Igor Stravinsky Arrested for Adding a Chord to the National Anthem?

Did Rebecca Schaeffer’s Murder Lead to the Cancellation of My Sister Sam?

Did the First Performance of Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" Seriously Cause a Riot?

Did Ernie Hudson Lose Out On a Role in the Real Ghostbusters Cartoon That He Played in The Actual Ghostbusters Film?

How Did an Actor’s Ability to Make a Cappuccino Nab Him a Long-Running Role on Friends?

COMIC LEGEND: Jerry Siegel nearly wrote "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow"

STATUS: I'm Going With True

Awhile back, reader Michael S. asked me if it was true that Jerry Siegel was the original choice for "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow," the two-part storyline that served as a farewell to the Pre-Crisis Superman before John Byrne rebooted the character in Man of Steel.





The answer sure seems to be yes, although of course with the caveat that if it WAS written by Siegel, it obviously would not have been "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" as Siegel would undoubtedly have his own take on the story and not the same approach Alan Moore used.

In any event, here is Superman editor Julius Schwartz on the topic at the time:

I started to think, what am I going to put in my last two issues. And in the middle of the night, it came to me: I would make believe that my last issues of Superman and Action Comics were actually going to be the last issues.

Therefore it was incumbent upon me to explain all the things that had been going on in the previous years. For example, did Lois ever find out that Clark Kent was Superman? Did they ever get married? What happened to Jimmy Olsen, to Perry White, to all the villains? I had to clear it up.

I ask this at conventions: 'Who would you, sitting in my editorial chair, mid-1985, ask to write that story?' The answer was obvious - he wrote the first one, let him write the last one... Jerry Siegel!

Jerry and I spent a lot of time together at the (San-Diego Comic Convention) DC booth that year, and I finally asked him the critical question: Would he be willing to write the last Superman story? Jerry's response was, 'Oh... boy, well, I have to think about that... no, no need to think about it, I would love to write it!' But it turned out there were legal problems that, because of the schedule, we didn't have time to resolve, so Jerry wasn't able to do it after all.

The next morning, still wondering what to do about it, I happened to be having breakfast with Alan Moore. So I told him about my difficulties. At that point, he rose out of his chair, and said, 'If you let anybody but me write that story, I'll kill you.' Since I didn't want to be an accessory to my own murder, I agreed.

While I would not be shocked if Schwartz embellished the tale a little bit, there's nothing in there that makes me think that he is an unreliable source on the topic, so I'm going to trust him on this one and say that yes, the story is true.

Thanks to Michael for the question!

Check out some classic Comic Book Legends Revealed related to Jerry Siegel!

Did Siegel want Superman to reveal his secret identity to Lois Lane in 1940?!

Did Siegel really threaten to kill himself over his treatment by DC Comics over the sale of Superman to DC?

Did Siegel and Shuster have a Jor-L character years before Action Comics #1?

Did Siegel lose his father to a senseless act of violence?

COMIC LEGEND: An issue of What If...? indirectly led to the whole "Ms. Marvel gives birth to her boyfriend who mind controls her until she leaves this dimension with him" plotline.

STATUS: True

Recently, we featured the tale of how Chris Claremont responded negatively to an issue of the Avengers that had Ms. Marvel, in effect, give birth to her own boyfriend.

The plot began in Avengers #197 by writer David Michelinie...



However, Avengers #200 was written by Michelinie as well as Jim Shooter, with plot assistance by Bob Layton and George Perez (Perez drew the issue).

This is because Shooter actually had stepped in and changed Michelinie's ORIGINAL plot! Originally, Michelinie was going to reveal that Ms. Marvel was artificially impregnated by the Kree Supreme Intelligence, who had always wanted to have a human/Kree hybrid. In fact, as commenter fraser points out, in Ms. Marvel #19, the Supreme Intelligence had even expressed interest in using Ms. Marvel in this fashion...



So Michelinie was actually following up on a plot for her own title!

However, in a then-recent issue of What If...?, the issue concluded with the Supreme Intelligence using the dead body of Rick Jones to make...a Kree/human hybrid...



Shooter felt that the two stories were too similar (especially being released so close together) so he made Michelinie change his story, which resulted in the explanation we saw in the issue...





Think about how many things would have been different if we had just not had that one issue of What If...? I bet that issue's writer, Tom DeFalco, never could have imagined how things changed just because of his issue! Would Ms. Marvel have even left the Avengers? If there wasn't the Marcus story, would Chris Claremont have Rogue take her powers away? What would Rogue be like without her Ms. Marvel powers? So many, well, What Ifs!!

Thanks to the various commenters who pointed out this story in the Meta-Message column. I was waiting to feature it here, so I moderated all of your comments, but you didn't know that, of course, so thanks for the help! Specifically Doug, FredII, Eric Henry and John Trumbull! Thanks, guys!

Check out the latest edition of my weekly Movie/TV Legends Revealed Column at Spinoff Online: Did Johnny Carson really accidentally cause a toilet paper shortage in 1973?

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com. And my Twitter feed is http://twitter.com/brian_cronin, so you can ask me legends there, as well!

Here's my new book, Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? The cover is by Kevin Hopgood (the fellow who designed War Machine's armor).

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Also, be sure to check out my website, Urban Legends Revealed, where I look into urban legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can find here, at urbanlegendsrevealed.com.

Here's my book of Comic Book Legends (130 legends - half of them are re-worked classic legends I've featured on the blog and half of them are legends never published on the blog!).

The cover is by artist Mickey Duzyj. He did a great job on it...(click to enlarge)...



If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you all next week!