Peter Parker exits his gray, suburban house on a sunny morning, backpack in hand and a smile on his face. He was wearing a gray sweater, and a black T-shirt. Unfortunately, his moment of peace is disturbed by the screaming next door at the Watson residence. Mary Jane, wearing a blue coat, blue denim skirt, and long black boots, runs out her house crying, with her father in toe. MJ's father (with a stubble-covered face, dressed in a loose sweater and white undershirt) yells after her, "You're trash, just like your mother! I don't care what she says, you're trash and you're always gonna be trash, just like her!" "I have to go to school!" sobs MJ, as she runs out the door. "Eh, who's stoppin' ya?" mutters her father. Peter, with a concerned look on his face, follows MJ, and is about to run up to console her when...

"Cut!" yelled director Sam Raimi from behind one of the preview monitors on the set of Spider-Man. He liked the way the scene went, but wanted to try a few things differently.

I had only just arrived on the Queens, NY set this past weekend and the whole thing was a little surreal. Being the comic-book-movie editor here at CountingDown, I had jumped at the opportunity to visit New York in the hope of getting closer to the action. As the crew takes a break, and with Sam talking with Kirstin about the shot, I realized that it had all become a reality.

Raimi suggests to Kirstin maybe she should cry a little more as she runs out of the house, and asks the actress playing MJ's mother to pop her head out of the door and call the father an idiot. While Kirstin practices her crying, Tobey plays with a basketball. Producer Avi Arad and Special Effects Supervisor Karen Goulekas look on.

While not interfering with the principal cast or director (maybe next time, but they were all very involved with filming), SFX supervisor Karen Goulekas was nice enough to give me some information. Very informative and polite, she was obviously very enthusiastic about being a part of the Spider-Man film.

The two words Karen used to sum up the effects work so far on Spider-Man? "Really awesome". She said that "the trailer will definitely be released in June" ("I know that cause I know we have to have it done by June", she laughs), and that it's "coming along great". "It will be attached to Final Fantasy, another Sony movie." While she doubted that any of composer Danny Elfman's (Batman, Edward Scissorhands) music would be used in the first trailer, the trailer will still be "amazing" to see.

"The most exciting special effects shots in the trailer, and in the movie really, are the shots of Spidey swinging through New York City. You have to make a photo-realistic Spidey to make it believable." Karen is currently working on computer-generated shots of Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, presumably for their various battles which take place above the Big Apple.

Karen then directed me to the actor playing Mary Jane's father, who was nice enough to take some time between shots to answer some questions for me about what he thought of the film so far. "So far, so good," he said with a smile on his face. "I'm really looking forward to it. It's good because it's light - it's not preachy."

Next up, a pivotal shot was to be filmed. Tobey prepared himself for the shot, put on his now trademark Peter Parker geek-glasses (large, thick, black rimmed), and prepared for the shot - it was short, but important nonetheless. This was the shot in which Peter returns home after the infamous spider-bite that transforms him into Spider-Man. Tobey got it about 2 takes, and then before he had time to sign any autographs (despite the protests of his legion of screaming female fans) or answer any questions (like I said, maybe next time), he was shot off to another set with Kirstin.

Luckily, however, this departure gave me an opening to talk to Executive Producer Avi Arad. Arad is the official producer of all films Marvel, ranging from last year's hit X-Men and Wesley Snipes' Blade, to the upcoming X-Men 2, Blade 2, Ghost Rider, and Fantastic Four. Mr. Arad was not only very polite, but also took a lot of time to answer my questions.

"[This movie] is fantastic - all the performances are great." When it comes to casting Tobey as Spider-Man, all Arad had to say was "he was really the only choice." Arad thinks that this movie has a built-in appeal, because unlike strange and unusual characters like Blade, people can relate to the story's protagonist, Peter Parker.

"I think these comics are so successful because they're like real life. Peter's life sucks, just like everybody else's," Arad laughs. He describes the plot of the film as "the origin story. The tone [of the film] is exactly like it was in the original comic books - only based in a world that is more recent. It's a modernized retelling."

When asked if he used Marvel's new line of Ultimate comics as a source of inspiration, Arad said that some ideas were used, but that the story "mostly came from the ideas of the original comics." Of course, I had to ask about who we might be seeing in the sequels, and the fan favorite character Venom came up. "I don't think we'll be seeing Venom in Spider-Man II, because he is a little too dark for the story. But who knows about Spider-Man 3, 4, and so on."

I decided to use this unprecedented opportunity to ask about some of Marvel's other major upcoming films: while Avi was often very mysterious in his answers, I did get some interesting info.

On the upcoming Hulk movie, he said "Ang Lee will be directing, as you know, and we will be changing [David Hayter's] draft of the script. The tone of that film will be much darker than Spider-Man." Arad even went so far as to ask who I would cast as Dr. Bruce Banner, so I guess the casting process hasn't really started yet.

When questioned about director Steve Norrington's (Blade) upcoming Ghost Rider movie, he said that the new Ghost Rider character design "is amazing. It's going to look awesome."

Then came the question to end all questions in my book. Arguably the biggest reason I wanted to talk with Mr. Arad - what's the latest word on X-Men 2? "Bryan Singer, David Hayter and the rest of the crew are working on the script now. The scope of this film will be much bigger than the last one. All the characters will be coming back."

"Do you like Jean Grey?", he asked... "She will be developed more in this film." Also, "Ian McKellen [aka the villainous Master of Magnetism, Magneto] will definitely be back. Definitely."

Marvel is still shooting for a November 2002 release date, so look for announcements about the film to start coming fast and furious in not too long. Of course the biggest question is, What about new characters? "The odds are very good for new characters."

When asked about my personal favorite, the Beast, Arad replied, "Well, we all wanted Beast in the first picture, so..." Again, nothing is final, but I like those odds.

As I was leaving after the interview, I wished Avi & Karen the best of luck. "I can't wait to see it!" Avi and Karen both smiled. "Neither can we!"

Look out for Typhon 24's next field trip soon!!!