Spider-Man Animated Exclusive!

As you may or may not have heard, MTV has been developing a new animated TV series starring Spider-Man. Originally, Brian Michael Bendis was involved with the project, but had to leave due to his comic commitments. Above are some screen captures from some footage that was leaked to us from an anonymous insider.

Apparently, Marvel wants to tone it down a little bit from what the studio has done so far... less sex, no blood, etc. I think the studio basically thought "Spawn". But Marvel wants to still have the 14-year-olds be able to watch it and not freak out their parents.

Here is some info on the technology involved from our anonymous insider:

The style was created by using traditional 3D CGI techniques, including mo-cap and remarkably virtual "sets" and locations (example: Harry Osborn's penthouse exterior wall is actually attached to the interior set. You could "Hitchcock" the virtual camera through one of his windows, right into his kitchen or bedroom. ) Then, a proprietary process " 'toonizes" the characters - simplifies their features, flattens and outlines them - giving them a classic illustrated novel look while still retaining the dimensionality and lighting effects of the traditional CG. The animation is done at Mainframe up in Canada and overseen by producers Audu Paden and Morgan Gendel at Sony in Culver City, Ca. The intial cost of such an undertaking is enormous, not unlike that of a feature film, but because of the nature of CG, its inherent recyclability , the cost amortizes nicely over time. In other words, we pray you all really like it and want season after season of it!

No air date for the series has been set yet. But, the footage looks really good. A definite step up from the 90's series (lets just forget about the Spider-Man Unlimited series). Thanks to our anonymous insider!