Spider-Man hire is Net topic

Now that Tobey Maguire is set to become Spider-Man in a big-screen version of the comic book, he faces the stickiest of all webs:the World Wide Web.

Maguire's casting as Spidey and his meek alter ego, Peter Parker,is one of the most anticipated since Hayden Christensen was namedAnakin Skywalker for the second "Star Wars" prequel, and comic bookand action movie fans have been hitting the Internet with theiropinions.

"Most think he's a good actor," says Patrick Sauriol, editor ofthe movie buzz site Coming Attractions (corona.bc.ca/films). "Still,they are cautiously optimistic. Once they see him in the costume,people will have a better sense."

Maguire ("The Cider House Rules") isn't a teen heartthrob, andfans are happy about that, says Harry Knowles, creator of Ain't ItCool News (aint-it-cool-news.com). "Many were convinced somebody likeFreddie Prinze Jr. would get the role," he says. "Maguire has thatgeeky feel that is Peter Parker. He always seemed like a guy whowould get sand kicked in his face."

Of course, not everybody is thrilled with the decision, Sauriolsays. "The people who don't like it are those who are genre fanswho'd rather have somebody like Bruce Campbell (`Evil Dead'), eventhough he's too old for the role," Sauriol says. "Some fans havealready had Spider-Man in their minds for years."

At the Spider-Man Hype! site (www.spidermanhype.com), fans likeMaguire, but a number of other actors also had supporters.

"From recent polls, Tobey was the favorite," says Spider-Man Hype!creator Mirko Parlevliet. "But our readers had a variety of othergreat ideas. Wes Bentley (`American Beauty') certainly was a favoriteamong many."

The Sony film, which is being directed by Sam Raimi ("A SimplePlan"), is scheduled to begin shooting in November for a tentativerelease in November 2001. It isn't at the top of fans' want-to-seelist yet, says Greg Dean Schmitz of Upcomingmovies.com.

"Fans are excited about the film, but they're not fervent," hesays. "The latest statistics of the most-visited previews on my sitehas `Spider-Man' No. 4 for 2001, which isn't bad. But it is stillbehind `Jurassic Park 3,' which is No. 1, `Harry Potter' and `FinalFantasy.' That may change now."