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‘Batman Live’ Directors Insist The Show Will Be Nothing Like ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark’

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Batman Live! Will kick off its European tour this July. Will it be anything like the Spider-Man spectacle in New York? (credit: Joel Ryan/AP)

Batman Live! Will kick off its European tour this July. Will it be anything like the Spider-Man spectacle in New York? (credit: Joel Ryan/AP)

NEW YORK CITY (CBSNewYork) – Watch out, Spider-Man – another superhero may be trying to muscle in on your high-wire act.

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark has made headlines here for things like safety violations, special effects mishaps and stunt-related injuries to the show’s actors.

Across the pond, another comic book character is preparing to take his show on the road – and is doing his best to take tips from his superhero colleague here in Manhattan.

Batman Live is kicking off a European tour in July, and the show’s producers are doing their best to learn from the mistakes of Turn Off The Dark, which has cost $65 million. In fact, Batman’s producer told British paper The Guardian that Batman won’t be anything like the troubled Spider-Man production.

“It’s a very different show to ours,” said Batman’s creative director Anthony van Laast in regards to Spider-Man. “The only comparison is they’re about heroes.”

The $20 million show will not be a musical – though, like Spider-Man, it will feature special effects, acrobatics and intense, theatrical sets of the Gotham City.

In February, Turn Off The Dark was hit with two new safety violations by New York State labor officials. Van Laast told BBC News that these types of technical dangers won’t be a risk for his crew.

“We’re in an arena, we can fly wherever we want,” he said.

You can make the comparison. The Batmobile won’t arrive in North America until summer 2012.

Would you go see Batman Live? Is this a good idea? Sound off in our comments section.

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  • MrPhilip Philip Philips

    ‘Yeh’ they were once only thought of, came down on paper crawled into comic books now climbing up theatre screens, Soon they will be sitting on your shoulder asking you the time of day like they just came from outside the planet. ‘Why they will even tell you which planet they came from. and ask you for a date. And you know what that means, Our politicians will dress up in super hero costumes and start running around loos in the streets trying to fly. A whole new racket is going to stir up in our cities with this cracks soon.

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