James Cameron’s Spider-Man
In the mid-1990s, James Cameron wrote a script for a Spider-Man movie just as he completed shooting True Lies.
Cameron was on-board to co-write and direct, with his future Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio pencilled in as Spider-Man/Peter Parker and Arnold Schwarznegger rumoured to play Doctor Octopus. With the height of the comic boom in full effect and Schwarznegger still the biggest movie star on the planet, this was a sure-fire hit.
A second Cameron script which featured variations of Electro and Sandman as villains with Lance Henricksen as Carlton Strand/Electro, Michael Biehn as Boyd/Sandman and, in a genius piece of casting, R. Lee Emery as J Jonah Jameson
So why was it not made?
Well, it turns out that Spider-Man had an enemy even he couldn’t defeat… Showgirls.
Wut?!
That’s right, the box office bomb coupled with the failure of Cutthroat Island meant that the studio, Carolco Pictures, were unable to finance the movie.
The comic book bubble would burst not long after and the movie rights to Spider-Man ultimately reverted back to Marvel, who quickly sold them to Sony to aid in their ascendancy from bankruptcy.
Spider-Man 4
In spite of the poor reception from fans and critics alike to Spider-Man 3, it still is the most successful Spider-Man movie to date, raking in close to a billion dollars worldwide.
Director Sam Raimi was eager to do a course correction after being unhappy with the script for the third movie and hired David Koepp, the writer of the first film, to do it.
Raimi had wanted to finally show the transformation of Dr Curt Connors into the Lizard, with Dylan Baker reprising his role (below). He also had plans to upgrade Bruce Campbell to a more significant role, rumoured to be Mysterio.
The main villain of the piece would be the Vulture, with John Malkovich signed on along with Anne Hathaway playing Felicia Hardy. Hardy would be reimagined as “Vulturess” instead of the Black Cat that she became in the comics.
Four drafts that Raimi hated later and he would leave the project with Sony opting to instead reboot the series entirely, with the two under-performing Amazing Spider-Man movies.
Andrew McCarroll
Andrew McCarroll never quite built on the dizzying career heights that he hit at 6 years old, when as a member of the “Ghostbusters” he would charge his neighbours to remove any unwanted spectres. Now retired from slaying spooks, he spends his time obsessing over superheroes (especially Batman) and devouring shows like Dexter, Game of Thrones and Archer in a manner that would make Galactus proud. You can follow his rants on twitter @andymc1983
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