The Insane Backstory and History to James Cameron’s Spider-Man

Before we had the Jon Watts trilogy, before the Marc Webb duology, and before the Raimi trilogy … there was an idea. Famed director James Cameron was to make the first major live-action Spider-Man movie. And it was insane.

How James Cameron’s Spider-Man was funded

Spider-Man‘s cinematic rights have been owned by Sony’s subsidiary Columbia Pictures for almost three decades. Before that, the rights were owned by Carolco Pictures, and before that, they were owned by The Cannon Group and legendary Israeli producer Menahem Golan.

Golan, along with Yoram Globus, had built The Cannon Group’s business and reputation by acquiring low-level scripts and transforming them into direct-to-video B movies. In the mid 1980s, the company attempted to produce a live-action Spider-Man film with a catch: if the film wasn’t made by April 1990, Marvel would re-acquire the rights.

The Cannon Group couldn’t make Spider-Man happen, so before the rights transferred to Marvel, Golan and Globus’s company sold the rights to Carolco for $5 million. Carolco had an ace up their sleeve: James Cameron, who co-wrote the screenplay for Rambo: First Blood Part II, wanted to direct the film. But Cameron was also riding high off the success of Aliens and The Abyss, both of which had won and received several Academy Award nominations.

So Cameron wanted a special deal, one that replicated his work on Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Cameron would have the right to decide on movie and advertising credits, which eventually sparked a legal battle in 1993 after Golan sued to regain a credit for producing the film. Carolco, Golan’s new studio 21st Century Film Corp. and Marvel would all go bankrupt three years later, with courts returning the rights to Marvel in 1998 after the company recovered from near-financial ruin.

As for the film itself, the plot was best described as being heavily inspired by the 1990s “dark and gritty” take on comic book characters. It was heavy on profanity and highly sexual, including a rather peculiar sex scene (more on that later). Understandably, the movie got stuck in development hell, although Cameron’s full script treatment would eventually be released online.

The original Spider-Man cast

The titular hero would be played by the most 90s possible casting choice — Leonardo DiCaprio. Fresh off his Oscar-nominated performance in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, he was hot property for pretty much any studio that needed a lead.

The villains for the piece were meant to be Electro and Sandman, but neither under their traditional names of Max Dillon or Flint Marko – but instead as Carlton Strand and ‘Boyd’ respectively. Electro was to be played by Lance Henricksen, and Sandman by Michael Beihn.

Carlton Strand was written to be a caricature of hardcore capitalist businessmen (think RoboCop), while Sandman was more of a classic Spider-Man villain story of getting involved in mad science experiments involving atoms and the like. Both takes have ended up in later Spidey films, with Sandman debuting in 2007’s Spider-Man 3 played by Thomas Haden Church, and Jamie Foxx as Electro in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Spidey’s love interest would be Mary-Jane, which did carry over to the Sam Raimi films. Nikki Cox was cast in the role, although she would be later become known for her lead role in the sitcom Unhappily Ever After which ran for 100 episodes. In another treatment for the script, the producers had targeted Arnold Schwarzenegger to play Doctor Octopus, a casting choice that could even work in modern day Spider-Man.

Interestingly, the studio eyed Michael Douglas as J. Jonah Jameson. It’s hard to see someone else in the role after J.K. Simmons’s success. Douglas would eventually appear in the Marvel universe, however, portraying Hank Pym 25 years later in the Ant-Man films. Marvel had also earmarked Kevin Spacey to play Norman Osborn.