James Cameron's 'Spider-Man' Movie That Never Got Made Sounds FASCINATING
Did you know that James Cameron almost made a Spider-Man movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Peter Parker in the 90s?
They actually took a decent amount of ideas and concepts from Cameron's unmade 'Spider-Man' and inserted them into the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire trilogy years later, such as the controversial organic web-shooters....
Here's the story: In 1990, Carolco Pictures acquired the rights to make a 'Spider-Man' film from Marvel for a whopping $5 million, and tapped frequent collaborator James Cameron to write, direct, and produce. It all fell apart before it ever got going, due to rights/contract issues and typical Hollywood bullshit, but the stories about the script/outline are fascinating.
Apparently, this iteration of 'Spider-Man' would tow the line between what is considered PG-13 and R-rated content, with a heavy use of profanity, a Peter Parker/Mary Jane sex scene on top of the Brooklyn Bridge, and even a nocturnal emissions scene where Peter wakes up covered in his own webbing one morning - I swear!
Like I said previously, Leo was tapped to play Peter Parker, with sitcom star Nikki Cox in Cameron's sights as MJ; and while there are tons of rumors online about the potential of an Arnold Schwarzenegger Doctor Octopus and a Kevin Spacey Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, the most credible information I could find pointed towards Electro as the movie's big bad guy, with Sandman operating as his backup/muscle. Lance Henriksen was up for the role of Electro, and Michael Biehn would play Sandman.
Here is some concept art that a high-tech AI generated to give you an idea of what that would've looked like….
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It's stories like this that truly make me wish the multiverse was real, because I don't know if this James Cameron 'Spider-Man' necessarily sounds ~good~, but god dammit if I don't wanna see it - if only for Leo as Peter Parker!
Oh, and I almost forgot - Michael Douglas was one of the actors being considered to play J. Jonah Jameson! Could you imagine?!
Sunset Boulevard. Getty Images.Ol' Hank Pym himself, out hunting for pictures of Spider-Man to slander the friendly neighborhood hero's name! Crazy. Talk about a 'What If…?'!
We discuss stories like this in My Mom's Basement, our little nerd podcast here at Barstool, all the time. Check it out….