Take us through the legal problems in getting "Spider-Man" to the screen...
Nobody knows less about legal things than me! Years ago, a small company called Cannon films got the rights to do the "Spider-Man" movie. In order to get the money, they pre-sold the rights. But they never made the movie, and lost the option to do it. When bigger companies wanted to do the film, they found they couldn't get all the video rights, which had been pre-sold. Now, no company is going to invest $100 million unless they get all the rights to it. So it took all this time, and a million lawyers, to straighten everything out and get the rights back to Marvel. Jim Cameron wanted to do "Spider-Man" and it went on so long, he walked away from it.
Do you think Sam Raimi has managed to recreate your character on screen?
I was amazed at how they got the whole feeling of Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Of course, it's an original story. One of the slight differences... when I wrote the story originally, I had Peter Parker get his super power by being bitten by a radioactive spider. Now it's 2002, they have a genetically-altered spider.
What do you think of Sam Raimi?
Sam had been a friend of mine for some time. He and I had wanted to do a movie years ago - about the mighty Thor, god of thunder. It didn't work out but we got friendly, so when I heard he was doing "Spider-Man", I was happy. When they invited me to the set, they asked my opinion, but I have no authority over these movies - nor do I want it! If the movie is bad, you can't blame me!
"Spider-Man" opens in UK cinemas on Friday 14th June 2002.
