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By Sumayyah Meehan February 1, 2010 Maybe the reason why Tobey Maguire left the “Spiderman” franchise this year is because he realized he had nothing on Alain Roberts. Over the years, the infamous French “Spiderman” daredevil has risked life, limb and imprisonment to conquer some of the world’s tallest towers. The 47-year old Frenchman has scaled an impressive list of historical buildings including, the Sears Tower, the Empire State Building and Taipei 101. And now, he’s got his sights set on - what else? - the world’s tallest building. Clearly having not learned his lesson that scaling tall buildings in a single bound is obviously Superman’s job, the French Spidey is making all the necessary preparations to shimmy up the Burj Khalifa. According to recent statements that he has made in the media, his plans are to mount the insurmountable metal beast this spring, somewhere between January and April. Apparently the heat of the Middle East could prove to be detrimental to the climb and could make it an impossible task.  Of course this all makes sense, considering the thing’s elevators aren’t working. The reason for all of the secrecy regarding the exact date of the climb, of course, is because Dubai authorities would yank the daredevil down from the Burj Khalifa before he could even say, ‘Ma’salama’! Just five months ago, Roberts was arrested by Malaysian authorities and hauled off to court, where he was fined an undisclosed amount of money for climbing up the 88-storey Petronas Towers without permission. Hypothetically speaking, even if Roberts somehow manages to eschew the gutra-clad security personnel, he may just find that he has met his match in the Burj Khalifa. Standing at a ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’ 2,717-feet, the gargantuan structure might just be Roberts undoing especially since he climbs with his bare hands and not even a parachute (or a sturdy balloon). Still, Roberts recently said, “My biggest fear is to waste my time on earth. For me, climbing is as important as eating and breathing. Climbing skyscrapers is my lifetime love and passion.” Those sound like fighting words to me. If he does pull it off, Roberts will no doubt steal the thunder of all those wannabe Spideys chomping at the bit to fill the on-screen void left by Maguire. Hear that, Zac Efron?  Source: Middle East Online http://www.elanthemag.com/index.php/site/blog_detail/real_life_spiderman_seeks_new_heights_in_dubai-nid771491413/