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Stan Lee's 7th Portal Heads To The Silver Screen
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 Comic book guru Stan Lee has forged a partnership with producer Mark Canton to create a big-budget feature based on Lee's Web-animated superhero property ``7th Portal.''Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but it becomes the second recent high-profile sale to go from dot-com to big screen. Universal in May acquired film rights to John Ridley's Web-based animated comedy series ``Undercover Brother'' for $2 million from Netcaster UrbanEntertainment.com. ``Portal'' addresses the adventures of an interracial, international group of young and Internet-savvy superheroes. ``(Lee is) one of my real heroes,'' said Canton, who added that as a kid he became an inveterate reader of Lee-created comic book heroes such as ``The Incredible Hulk'' ``Spider-Man'' and ``X-Men.'' All of these superheroes are slated for a big screen debut: Fox stakes the ``X-Men'' summer tentpole July 14, Sony is eyeing actors for Spidey's suit and Universal hopes to make the earth shake with a big screen computer-generated ``Hulk.'' 
Stan Lee Media co-founder Peter Paul, who will serve as an executive producer, pointed out that ``Spider-Man'' took 40 years to approach a theater marquee; ``7th Portal'' was launched on Netcaster Shockwave.com Feb. 29.``We had 3 million downloads in the first three weeks and we're now in the fast track for production,'' Paul said. ``This is the effect of doing business on Internet time.'' Things moved so quickly that Canton said when he closed the deal with Lee on Wednesday afternoon, he had not yet presented the project to the brass at Warner Bros. Pictures. ``We want to take our time and find the right writer and the right way to do this,'' said Canton of his would-be franchise. Given Canton's track record of translating comic book superheroes to celluloid, it would not be surprising if his home studio embraced ``7th Portal.'' Canton previously oversaw the launch of the ``Batman'' franchise while president of production at WB and later supervised the productions of ``Men in Black'' and ``Starship Troopers'' while chairman at Columbia Pictures. Last month, Stan Lee Media partnered with Paramount Parks to produce the attraction ride ``Stan Lee's 7th Portal 3-D Simulation Experience.'' Lee will also serve as executive producer of the ``7th Portal'' feature, and Canton as producer. [Posted 6/08/2000]
  
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