Eighteen years ago James Cameron was put in charge of directing the very first (not counting the 70’s TV series outings that were edited into movies) big-screen version of Marvel’s Spider-Man. Sadly Cameron’s vision never came to light, but now Techland and The Toronto Star have uncovered details on just what Cameron envisioned for the character. From the Star:
Spider Man internalizes all of his aggression — until his Uncle Ben is killed by a robber. Then he begins lashing out indiscriminately. A thief he’s after is killed by a fall. When he gets hard up for cash, he robs a drug dealer. In the climactic battle scene, Spider Man kills Electro. It’s also more sexual. Parker discovers his webs by waking up in a bed full of white, webby goo. While on his first night-time jaunt, he peeps into love interest Mary Jane’s bedroom as she changes. Later, there’s a sex scene on top of the Brooklyn Bridge.
…one of the villains is Sandman, who already underwhelmed in Spider-Man 3. This would open the door for Kraven the Hunter or Mysterio or someone else from the second tier of Spider-Man villains. And who knows if John Malkovich, who was slated to play the Vulture in Sam Raimi’s canned fourth instalment, might still be up for that role. The antagonist is Cameron Strand, a.k.a. Electro, a grasping robber baron who can manipulate electricity. Strand wants to create a group of supervillains and – three guesses? – take over the world. In this story, he’s attractively slimy and lustful. There’s a great recurring scene where he snogs his girlfriend, and is then forced to revive her stopped heart with an electro-shock forefinger to the chest.
Cameron’s story focuses more exhaustively on our hero’s origins than Raimi did – the radioactive spider bite that turns him into a super-strong, super-agile do-gooder. It reads a little like My So Called Life meets Straw Dogs, with Cameron’s trademark gruff asides. Peter Parker is a bullied, nebbishy high school nerd. He’s going nowhere fast. He’s a little angry. And eventually that cleansing rage comes pouring out. That said, it’s very faithful to the source material. Maybe that’s why character creator Stan Lee was said to have fallen in love with Cameron’s treatment.
What is interesting about the James Cameron Spider-Man tale is the amount of work Cameron put in before the project was nixed by Marvel. So much work that the film got as far as the storyboard stage – storyboards which are now available online courtesy of Techland:
You can see more storyboards from James Cameron’s Spider-Man over at Techland.
