Chris O'Falt

Stan Lee: "My publisher told me that Spider-Man was the worst idea I have ever heard." "My publisher came to me and said, 'Stan, I want you to come up with another superhero.' So I said okay. And I thought, 'What power will I give a new guy?' And I saw a fly crawling on the wall. I said, 'Hey, if I can get a superhero that could stick to walls and crawl on them man, that would be groovy.'" Stan continues: "I needed a name. Fly-Man, Mosquito-Man... I got down to Spider-Man. It just sounded dramatic. Then I figured, just for fun, I'm going to give him personal problems because most people have personal problems. And I'd make him a teenager, because there were no teenage superheroes at the time." He brought the idea to his publisher: "This was his reaction: 'Stan, that is the worst idea I have ever heard. First of all, people hate spiders so you can't call a hero Spider-Man. You want him to be a teenager? Teenagers can only be sidekicks. And you want him to have personal problems? Stan, don't you know what a superhero is? They don't have personal problems.'" Stan left disappointed but couldn't let it go: "We were about to kill a magazine called Amazing Fantasy. It wasn't selling well, and we were sending the last issue to press. When you do the last issue of a magazine, nobody cares what you put in it because the book is dying. Just to get it out of my system, I put Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy. Featured him on the cover. Forgot about it." Then the sales figures came in: "A month later, my publisher came racing into my office: 'Stan, Stan! You remember that character we both loved so much Spider-Man? Let's do him as a series.'" Stan shares the lesson: "If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good don't let some idiot talk you out of it. That doesn't mean every wild notion is going to be genius. But if there's something you feel is good, something you want to do, something that means something to you try to do it. Because I think you can only do your best work if you're doing what you want to do. And if you can look at it after and say, 'I did that and I think it's pretty damn good' that's a great feeling."

At the request of the Russian government, @Apple removed numerous VPN services from the App Store - tools that had allowed Russians to bypass censorship. A remarkable stroke of luck for Putin to have such “friends” in Big Tech. Over the past few years, Russian authorities have blocked millions of websites, including independent media and opposition platforms. VPNs are now one of the few remaining ways for Russians to access truthful reporting on current events. Yet Apple has chosen to assist state censorship in Russia.

I liked THE DRAMA. Few thoughts: It’s not a twist, it’s the premise/inciting incident. …and how do you market that?! Ari Aster’s “brand” continues to extend to producing. How Zendaya employs her on-screen persona continues to be fascinating Ending stuck w/ me.

Inside the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Era of AI in Music From juicing demos to cloning vocals, AI music tools are creeping into the workflows of top producers, songwriters, and artists. #RollingStoneFutureOfMusic Story: rollingstone.com/music/music-fe…

Yes, the greatest film of 2025:

I couldn't agree more with this thesis: How Wall Street Has Killed Hollywood: The End of Warner Bros indiewire.com/features/comme…

David Zaslav Cashed Out — and Revealed the New Hollywood Dream indiewire.com/features/comme…

This YouTuber, Benn Jordan discovered that a surveillance company named Flock Safety who currently has over 90K camera deployed throughout the US, is severely compromised. He found that many cameras are live-streaming directly to the open internet.

At Social Media Addiction Trial in Los Angeles... jurors just asked a (seemingly) very telling question: “For verdict form “compensatory damages and claim of punitive conduct,” does the entire group answer the verdict form, irregardless of how individuals voted? Or do only individuals who answered “yes” to question 2 or 7 on the verdict form for Meta or YouTube answer the questions for damages”

Imagine working for @TheOnion and having to compete with this.

Those three bullet points are important

A self-deputized crisis communications adviser for Paramount Skydance president Jeff Shell is claiming to have intimate knowledge of talks between Larry Ellison and President Donald Trump on the bidding war for Warner Bros. hollywoodreporter.com/business/busin…

@TomBrueggemann I think last time I looked it up I found a 2000s article @BillDesowitz wrote about it screening in LA

@cofalt Hope it gets to NY. I saw it at a sanctioned screening at the Egyptian early 2000s; Brock Peter, Sammy Davis' widow & kids were there. Visually quite strong, but it felt less personal than other Preminger titles around the time. As is unavoidable, a bit uncomfortable at times.

I’ve wanted to see this forever. Preminger was in his peak in 1959. So jealous

lI’ve been waiting for (dreading, really) the OBAA discourse for 7 months, and you all waited until after the Oscars? Thankful, but also lol

GKIDS' IMAX-exclusive reissue of KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE 4k scored a massive $1.6M in just 249 locations, $6,702 per.

@GentleDoofus What I find shocking is my top 10 of the 2020s wouldn’t look terribly different than my top 10 best pic noms of the 2020s. We now live in a world where Nickel Boys, Zone of Interest, Tar, AND Sinners get awards love.

1. West Side Story 2. The Zone of Interest 3. Killers of the Flower Moon 4. One Battle After Another 5. Oppenheimer 6. Nickel Boys 7. The Fabelmans 8. Anora 9. Drive My Car 10. The Power of the Dog

More great reporting by THR on these fake smear websites. By opening the door to these people being exposed, maybe some good did come from the IT ENDS WITH US Lively/Baldoni mess.

Possibly the last person in the world the Ellisons want making their case.

The rest of you could learn something from her.