The SPIDER-MAN Movies That Almost Happened

>Cannon Pictures' THE SPIDER-MAN (1985)

DIRECTOR: Tobe Hooper ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre")

WRITER: Leslie Stevens ("The Outer Limits")

>ID badge photographer Peter Parker is exposed to radiation by a mad scientist and transformed into a monstrous "Spider-Man". Upon learning that the mad scientist is creating an army of mutants to conquer the world, Peter confronts the monsters in an underground laboratory, ultimately causing its collapse and sacrificing himself to kill the mad scientist and his abominations.


In the 1980's, Marvel Comics was facing bankruptcy and sold the Spider-Man movie rights to Cannon Pictures to keep themselves afloat. Stevens wrote the script without any references to Spider-Man, and believed the character to be a tragic figure, "like the Wolfman". Stan Lee vehemently objected to Steven's draft, which was scrapped in favor of a proper adaptation of the comics.

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>Cannon Pictures' SPIDER-MAN (1986).

DIRECTOR: Joseph Zito ("Invasion U.S.A.")

WRITERS: Ted Newsom ("Evil Spawn") & John Brancato ("The Net"); Barney Cohen ("Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter).

>College student Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider created when his physics professor Otto Octavius accidentally overloads a cyclotron in an attempt to find the fabled Anti-Force, an accident which also fuses Octavius' mechanical "waldos" to his spine and drives him insane. Peter uses his newfound abilities to become a famous wrestler known as "Spider-Man", until the tragic death of his Uncle Ben at the hands of Octavius' bumbling assistant Weiner drives him to fight crime. Weiner had been sent to retrieve Peter's groundbreaking term paper on planetary alignment, pivotal for Octavius to reproduce his experiment.

>Octavius begins building a new cyclotron and crosses paths with Spider-Man as he becomes a criminal to acquire the necessary items, while claiming to be the "real" Spider-Man as he had also been bitten by a (regular) at the night of his accident. With the ripples created by Octavius' machine threatening to consume the entire universe, Spider-Man joins forces with his friends Liz Allan, Harry Osborn, Flash Thompson and Kim Dawson; seasoned scientist Solomon Rosomorf and police lieutenant Jake Marotta to stop Octavius, leading to a final in a laboratory flying towards Space, where Octavius dies trying to cross over to a parallel dimension, while Peter and Liz escape from the building in a makeshift parachute built from the America flag, voicing their feelings for each other and sharing a kiss on the way down.

The proposed cast.

>Scott Leva as Peter Parker / Spider-Man.
>Bob Hoskins as Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus.
>Lauren Bacall as Aunt May.
>Stan Lee as J. Jonah Jameson.
>Peter Cushing as Professor Solomon Rosomorf.
>Albert Caesar as Lieutenant Jake Marotta.

Tom Cruise and Charlie Sheen were originally approached for Peter Parker before stuntman Scott Leva was cast despite having no prior acting experience, because he could perform his own stunts. The movie was originally given a $20 million budget, which was slashed to $10 million due to Cannon Pictures' financial troubles. The script was rewritten several times to scale down costs, to the point where Spider-Man only swung around the city once, deemed it "too tiresome" and settled for using Rosomorf's car as a impromptu Spidey-mobile for the rest of the movie. Despite the troubled production, Cannon was confident enough to distribute a poster and trailer on American movie theater chains (Pic related).

youtube.com/watch?v=iqvzRqWRQnw

Zito and the supporting cast eventually abandoned production. Cannon briefly appointed Albert Pyun as a replacement, but by that time it was too late and the project was scrapped when Cannon Pictures went bankrupt. Producer Menahen Golan held on to the rights as he started a new production company, 21st Century Pictures, and joined forces with Carolco Pictures to produce and distribute the movie, written and directed by James Cameron, who at the time was developing the X-MEN movie for Carolco.

>Carolco Pictures' SPIDER-MAN (1997).

WRITER / DIRECTOR: James Cameron ("Terminator 2: Judgement Day")

>Introverted teenager Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider and uses his newfound abilities to become a late night television celebrity known as "Spider-Man", until the tragic death of his Uncle Ben at the hands of a criminal he could have stopped drives him to fight crime. Peter also bonds with his popular classmate and unrequited crush, Mary-Jane Watson, who hides the pain she suffers from her neglectful parents and her abusive boyfriend Nathan "Flash" McCreedy behind a arrogant façade.

>Spider-Man's activities attract the attention of Carlton Strand, a petty crook who developed electromagnetic powers after being caught in the explosion of an experimental generator, and has used his abilities to become a wealthy businessman. Convinced that he is superior to the human race and meant to rule them, Strand attempts to convince Spider-Man to join his forces, which also include Boyd, a thug who had his DNA spliced with sand in a failed teleportation experiment, giving him shapeshifting abilities. Once Spider-Man refuses, Strand bribes corrupt telecommunications mogul J. Jonah Jameson to begin a smear campaign against him.

>Spider-Man wrestles with his morality and develops a relationship with MJ, who is kidnapped by Strand and Boyd and taken atop the World Trade Center. Spider-Man rescues her and confronts Strand and Boyd, ultimately defeating them both and proving to the people of New York City that he is a hero. MJ finds out his secret identity, and they become a couple, with MJ pursuing a career in medicine while Peter maintains a job as a photographer while continuing his crimefighting activities.

Golan wanted Cameron to use the old draft, and envisioned Arnold Schwarzenegger as Doctor Octopus, but Cameron preferred to create his own version. Golan felt slighted when Cameron and Carolco did not credit him as a producer, and sued them. Carolco countersued, resulting in a lenghty legal battle that I'll TL;DR below

>Carolco also sues Viacom and Columbia Pictures (a subsidiary of Sony Pictures), who had purchased the home distribution rights from Golan.
>Viacom and Columbia countersue Carolco and 21st Century Pictures.
>20th Century Fox shows up and sues everyone for holding up Cameron, who had signed with them.
>Carolco, 21st Century Pictures and Marvel go bankrupt.
>Golan's assets, including the Spider-Man rights, are sold to MGM.
>MGM then sues Columbia, Viacom and Marvel, but loses.
>Columbia ends up securing the rights to the James Bond novel "Thunderball" from another legal battle, giving them the leeway to create their own James Bond movie series to compete against MGM's.
>MGM compromises to selling Columbia the Spider-Man rights in exchange for having "Thunderball" back.
>Marvel comes back after merging with Toy Biz.
>Columbia and Marvel quickly get the ball rolling on a new SPIDER-MAN movie, borrowing some elements from Cameron's draft like organic webs.

And that, kids, is how Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN was born. As for Cameron's version, it never got to the casting stage, but a post-TITANIC Cameron said he would've cast Leonardo Dicaprio as Peter Parker.

>Sony Pictures' SPIDER-MAN 4 (2011).

DIRECTOR: Sam Raimi (the "Spider-Man" trilogy).

WRITERS: David Koepp ("Spider-Man"), James Vanderbilt ("Zodiac"), Gary Ross ("Pleasantville"), David Lindsay-Abaire ("Inkheart").

>Five years after Harry Osborn's death, Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson are married and have son, Ben, who inherited his father's superpowers. Peter is working as an assistant to Dr. Curt Connors at Empire State University, and has an affair with Connors' student Felicia Hardy. Her adoptive father, criminal mastermind Adrian Toomes, acquires the Daily Bugle from retired J. Jonah Jameson to use as a front while he aspires to take over the city's criminal underworld as the Vulture.

>Felicia learns Peter's secret identity and urges him to run away with her, but Peter refuses to forego his responsabilities, leading to a fateful confrontation between Spider-Man and the Vulture in which Toomes dies. An embittered Felicia breaks up with Peter, sells the Daily Bugle back to Jameson and moves to Europe. MJ finds out about Peter's affair, files for a divorce and moves with Ben to Los Angeles to pursue a modeling career, leaving Peter to face the repercussions of his actions.

The Cast.

>Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker / Spider-Man.
>Kirsten Dunst as Mary-Jane Watson.
>Rosemary Harris as Aunt May.
>J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson.
>Dylan Baker as Dr. Curt Connors.
>Anne Hathaway as Felicia Hardy.
>John Malkovich as Adrian Toomes / Vulture.
>Bruce Campbell as Quentin Beck / Mysterio.


Sony had plans for a new trilogy, but Sam Raimi hated the script, particularly the earlier drafts where Toomes dies halfway through and Felicia becomes the Vulturess to avenge him. Once it became clear that the script wouldn't be ready in time to meet the deadline to begin filming, Raimi preferred to drop out rather than to rush into production like he did with SPIDER-MAN 3, and the project was scrapped in favor of Marc Webb's THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.

#BringBackRaimi

this sounds like shit

In fairness this does sound terrible

Fuck, Mysterio was gonna be in this movie?

The movie would begin with a montage of Spider-Man capturing C-list villains such as Mysterio, Prowler, Shocker, Rhino and Stilt-Man. Mysterio would've been Bruce Campbell's latest gag cameo.

>MJ finds out about Peter's affair, files for a divorce and moves with Ben to Los Angeles to pursue a modeling career, leaving Peter to face the repercussions of his actions.
This forced drama, really is a shit one like in SM3

What a waste of a great villain

I remember reading about this back in the day. Apparently it was gonna be r rated and involve a sex scene in a big spiderweb. Also wasn't there talk of Michael Beihn playing Parker?

Fucking bullshit. Where is this even from?!

The supposed plot I heard for years involved Curt Connors becoming The Lizard (since he was a figure in Spider-Man 2 and 3), and Kraven The Hunter coming to kill The Lizard. Peter has to protect Connors (who doesn't want his help) from Craven.

This is the rumored plot I've been seeing online for years, on loads of sites. I've literally never heard your bullshit story until right now.

I definitely remember reading that synopsis with vulture & vulturess years ago but it was never actually confirmed

>Raimi preferred to drop out rather than to rush into production like he did with SPIDER-MAN 3
i commend him for it

>The supposed plot I heard for years involved Curt Connors becoming The Lizard (since he was a figure in Spider-Man 2 and 3), and Kraven The Hunter coming to kill The Lizard. Peter has to protect Connors (who doesn't want his help) from Craven.

That's fake and honestly the first I've ever heard of it.

...

>Sony Pictures' THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3 (2016)

DIRECTOR: Marc Webb ("The Amazing Spider-Man")

WRITERS: Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman & Jeff Pinkner ("The Amazing Spider-Man 2")

>Peter Parker, still mourning the death of Gwen Stacy, comes into contact with a mysterious symbiotic substance developed by OsCorp that provides him with greater powers than he ever imagine - Including the ability to revive the dead. Peter is forced to confront the true nature of his new powers when his old friend Harry Osborn returns more dangerous than ever, hellbent on extracting a cure for his terminal condition from Peter's DNA.

Proposed Cast.

>Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker / Spider-Man.
>Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy.
>Sally Field as Aunt May.
>Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn / Green Goblin.
>Dennis Leary as Captain George Stacy.
>Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben.
>Campbell Scott as Richard Parker.
>Embeth Davidtz as Mary Parker.
>Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn.


Sony planned to launch a cinematic universe off of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, with VENOM and SINISTER SIX already in the pipeline. Despite the movie's disappointing performance, they were still going through with the sequel, which was only truly scrapped when Andrew Garfield snubbed Sony's head honcho Kaz Hirai at some meet-and-greet where the movie would officially be announced (some say he did it deliberately to kill the franchise).

Not much is known on the plot that they were cobbling together other than rumblings that Harry would've become Venom and the symbiote-enhanced Gwen would've become Carnage.

Thank you Andrew

TASM is done. Bury it.

After all the advancements in 3D technology you'd figure Mysterious and The Spot would be on the top of the list.