The paper's Rush & Molloy column, citing anonymous sources, reported that the movie is New Line's bid for a franchise on the order of Batman and Superman. "They're ready to spend up to $200 million to get it started," one source told the columnists.
The columnists also reported that director Peter Segal and his fellow producers want to nab Gyllenhaal before Spider-Man director Sam Raimi does. With Spider-Man 3, due to open on May 4, star Tobey Maguire has said he may let someone else play the webslinger in subsequent installments.