Variety is reporting that in ongoing negotiations, the union representing Canadian actors has offered a no-strike agreement to 20th Century Fox so the studio can begin shooting its Daredevil film in Montreal as early as November.

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada announced that Spider-Man creator Stan Lee will write the comic book adaptation of the Spider-Man movie, which is currently in production and scheduled to be released on May 2, 2002.

On the eve of the U.S.'s largest comic festival, with some 50,000 fans and industry types set to descend on San Diego for Comic-Con International this coming weekend, the L.A. Times published a lengthy feature article by Glenn Gaslin.

There is no doubt that manga's influence on American comics appears to be growing. Witness two stories that appeared on Newsarama this week. Michael Doran broke the story of Marvel's plan for an eight-title Marvel ' Mangaverse ' event planned for January, 2002, while Matt Brady detailed plans at DC Comics to use manga artist Kia Asamiya (Silent Moebius, Dark Angel) for a series of Titans covers.

The British website Empire On Line is reporting that Oscar-winning actor Nicholas Cage will star as Johnny Blaze in a movie version of the Ghost Rider comic. The film will be directed by Steven Norrington, who brought Marvel's Blade to the big screen.

Universal Studios, which is already committed to a feature film based on The Incredible Hulk directed by Ang Lee is deep in negotiations with Marvel to acquire the rights to produce a film based on Marvel's first superhero--Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner--who first appeared in 1941.

Marvel has entered into an agreement with Dimension Films, a subdivision of Miramax, to develop a film based on the relatively short-lived 1980s comic Cloak and Dagger .

April 4, 2001. In a conference call with the press today, Marvel President Bill Jemas didn't mince words when defending his 'no overprint policy' In response to a question on the topic from ICv2, he responded, 'It's sort of an IQ test for comic retailers. You can count the digits in their IQ based on their enthusiastic reaction to the 'no overprints policy.''

Paul Jenkins, writer of Spider-Man, Hulk, Inhumans, Sentry , and Witchblade has taken a position at Top Cow as lead story editor. His primary responsibility will be working with all the Top Cow writers in an editorial capacity to ensure a uniform strategic direction in storylines.

Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , which over the past weekend became the first foreign language film to gross over $100 million, will be released on video this June.