Spider-Man is one of the most famous and beloved superheroes of popular culture.
Even though it has many and well-done cinematographic versions, the original trilogy starred by
Tobey Maguire still wins people’s hearts.
A trilogy that almost wasn’t such because the same creative team was planning on doing
a fourth movie.
But things didn’t go as planned.
Today on Movies Never Made, Spider-Man 4.
Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962, Spider-Man became one of the most emblematic
characters of the Marvel Comics.
Its charm lies on the fact that the story is about Peter Parker, a boy with a unique
ability: after a radioactive spider bit him, he acquired the ability to climb walls.
Plus, he can shoot spiderwebs thanks to a device of his own creation.
Besides fighting crime, Peter has to deal with everyday problems, like studying, helping
his aunt May and dealing with his young love life.
Due to its great impact, it wasn’t long until the comic turned to other formats.
Cartoon series have been airing since the late 1960s, and from 1977 to 1979 a series
and two films were released, in which Nicholas Hammond plays the role of an adult Peter.
However, fans were asking for a bigger cinematographic production.
James Cameron gave it a try in the mid 90s, before getting involved in Titanic, but the
lucky winner was Sam Raimi.
Born on 1959, Samuel Marshall Raimi grew up loving Jerry Lewis comedies and comics, especially
Spider-Man.
At 13, he got a 8 mm camera and started making short films.
Before finishing high school, he had made thirty short films, mostly humorous.
At university he met his future partners, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell.
The three of them would carry out Raimi’s ultra-independent debut feature: The Evil
Dead, from 1981.
It tells the story of a group of friends in a cabin and an evil entity who possess them
one by one.
The most heroic character is Ash, played by Campbell.
Raimi showed a sense of evil rhythm, a visual style with unusual shots and camera movements,
and an interest for a topic that would become recurrent in his work: power and how it affects
those who try to control it.
The Evil Dead turned out to be a frightening and unexpected success.
Raimi established himself once he completed this trilogy with Evil Dead II, a mixture
of horror and comedy, and Army of Darkness.
Campbell continued portraying nice Ash and became and icon of modern fantastic cinema.
The director dived into superheroes -or something like that- with Darkman, from 1990.
Liam Neeson plays the role of a vindictive scientist who wears synthetic masks.
Some amazing sequences made it clear he was capable of making a movie with these characteristics.
Raimi consolidated in Hollywood thanks to films like The Quick and the Dead and A Simple
Plan, but his most important opportunity came when he was convened to direct Spider-Man.
Premiered in 2002, the movie tells the story of how shy Peter becomes the friendly and
righteous neighbor after he fails to help his uncle Ben from getting shot.
It also shows the origin of the Green Goblin, one of the most iconic villains, and the many
confrontations they have.
Raimi combined magnificently adventure, humor, science fiction, romance and family drama.
Although he used sequences full of action and frenzy, the soul of the story lies on
Peter, his new condition as superhero, his relationship with his aunt and uncle, and
with his beloved Mary Jane, played by Kirsten Dunst.
It also gives the opportunity to Willem Dafoe to surprise us with his performance as Norman
Osborne -and his alter ego, the Green Goblin-, and to James Franco in his role of Norman’s
tormented son, Harry.
Spider-Man wasn’t just a blockbuster with amazing reviews: alongside X-Men, it helped
consolidate superhero films, from Marvel mostly.
The quote of the movies says ‘With great power, comes great responsibility’, and
Raimi most certainly was up to the task.
In view of the phenomenon, the sequel was more than sure to happen.
In Spider-Man 2, from 2004, Peter faces Doctor Octopus, played by Alfred Molina.
However, he starts to renounce his role of superhero.
Raimi continues to create shocking moments, but goes even deeper on the protagonist and
his inner conflicts.
Once again, it was a hit at the box office and received even better reviews.
In Spider-Man 2, Raimi had been given more freedom and was able to show his own style.
But when it comes to making Spider-Man 3, from 2007, things were different.
Raimi had decided the villain would be Sandman, a thief capable of transforming into sand.
However, Avid Arad -Marvel’s CEO back then- pushed him into including a classic villain
that fans had been craving for: Venom.
Reluctantly, the director did as he was told and the movie ended up with three villains,
as Harry Osborne turns into the new Green Gobling.
With expenses of almost 300 million dollars, Spider-Man 3 was the most expensive of the
three and one the most expensive films until this day.
It was worth the investment, earning 890 million dollars worldwide, out of the three, the last
Spider-Man was on top at the box-office.
But fans were disappointed: there were too many special effects and there were embarrassing
moments, like Peter dancing.
In future interviews, Raimi admitted that he hated the movie, took the blame and said
he had no creative freedom and that he got carried away aiming for a colossal film.
In 2018, Arad took the responsibility for insisting on adding Venom.
Nevertheless, in 2007 there were intentions to make not only Spider-Man 4, but also the
fifth and sixth movie.
In October of 2008, Raimi made public these plans and also that the idea came mostly from
Amy Pascal, Sony Pictures CEO.
The director went back momentarily to horror with Drag Me to Hell, premiered on 2009, but
then he was ready to prepare a new adventure of the wall climber.
In March of that same year, he confirmed they were working only on a fourth movie, not more
sequels.
Tobey Maguire was ready to be Peter and Spider-Man once again.
Kirsten Dunst wasn’t confirmed at first, but Raimi wanted to count on her, so they
could develop Peter and Mary Jane love story.
Bryce Dallas Howard would also come back as Gwen Stacy.
As for the villains, the director wanted to explore a character who had already appeared
in the previous movies: Dr. Curt Connors, played by Dylan Baker.
As well as in comics, a serum to regenerate his arm would transform him into Lizard, another
classic Spidey enemy.
Both, Raimi and Baker were excited about the idea.
The director also wanted to give room to another villain of the Spider-Man universe: Vulture.
Adrian Toomes’ alter ego, someone who in comics was an engineer turn into a criminal
thanks to a harness with wings that gave him superhuman strength.
His fights with Spider-Man are one of the best in the comics.
Raimi also wanted to include another crucial character from comics: Black Cat, a girl with
skills in acrobatics and delinquency, who is Spider-Man enemy, but from time to time
also his allied.
Like Catwoman, but from Marvel.
But the cherry on top would be Mysterio, a special effects technician who fights our
hero with well-elaborated tricks.
For the role of Quentin Beck, Raimi had Bruce Campbell in mind, as he had given him small
roles in his previous films.
Just like in Spider-Man 3, there was a fair share of villains, but Raimi didn’t want
to get it wrong again and knew that the soul of the story had to be Peter’s journey.
With these characters in mind, the production contacted scriptwriter David Koepp, who had
already work in the first movie.
However, they soon called James Vandervilt, responsible for the script for David Fincher’s
Zodiac.
Later on, Pulitzer Prize winner, David Lindsay-Abaire, also joined.
In October 2009, the text was edited by experienced Gary Ross, scriptwriter of films like Dave
and director of The Hunger Games, among others.
In the storyline decided by Raimi and his scriptwriters, Peter Parker has a hard time
due to Harry’s death in Spider-Man 3.
But that doesn’t stop him from defending the innocent and defeating criminals.
At the same time, Curt Connors finally turns into Lizard, and Vulture appears.
But Black Cat has Spidey’s back and both must stop these threats from achieving their
goals.
Raimi and his team were planning on starting the shooting on March 2010.
The premiere was set to be on May 6, 2011.
Meanwhile, Sony had already in mind the fifth and sixth movie, so Vanderbilt was told to
leave an open final for these movies.
The cast that Raimi had put together was fascinated.
For Vulture he had thought of Ben Kingsley; but in the end they chose John Malkovich,
who had been offered to play Green Goblin in the past.
For the role of Felicia Hardy, a.k.a. Black Cat, they chose Anne Hathaway over Julia Stiles
and Rachel McAdams.
Unlike the comics, here the character would develop the personality of terrifying Vulturess.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Henderson was hired to be in charge of the conceptual art of the
film, including the spectacular encounters between Spider-Man and Vulture, and when they
capture Mysterio.
Everything seemed on track for the shooting to start.
However, it never happened.
Raimi wasn’t sure he could live up to the expectations or that we could deliver on time.
He wanted to make a better movie then the third one, the definite Spider-Man movie,
a project for which he could feel fulfilled, but the conditions to achieve this were insufficient.
And the script versions he was reading weren’t helping him at all.
At the same time, he heard that Sony was planning on making a reboot of Spider-Man, probably
with another cast and director, but with Vandervilt in charge of the script.
As there were no solutions to his doubts, Raimi met with Pascal.
In an act of rarely seen honesty in Hollywood, he confessed he didn’t want to make a movie
less than amazing, that it would be best to step aside and that the company continued
with the reboot of the character.
Pascal was thankful for the director’s honesty and his good intention to not waste money.
Of course, the plans for the fifth and sixth movie were also canceled.
As well as the characters in his films, this time Raimi wouldn’t control the power he
had in his hands, but he left Sony in good terms.
Without wasting time, the company set the reboot in motion, with Andrew Garfield as
Peter Parker and Marc Webb as director.
Premiered in 2012, The Amazing Spider-Man had a darker atmosphere, and also had Lizard
as its main villain.
This time, Dr. Connors was played by Rhys Ifans.
The movie was well received and lead to a second part: The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise
of Electro.
Now the villains were Harry Osborne, Rhino and, as it says in the title, Electro.
At the end of that film, it is implied that a group of Spidey’s enemies would appear,
the Sinister Six.
Vulture among them.
But it wasn’t as successful as the previous one and they canceled the plans, specially
since Sony and Marvel Studios had come to an agreement to reboot once again the character
and add him to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Spider-Man: Homecoming, from 2017, not only showed Tom Holland as the third Peter Parker,
but also meant the long-awaited appearance of the Vulture.
Michael Keaton played the role of Toomes and his dark alias.
In the sequel, Spider-Man: Far from Home, the other villain Raimi had dreamt of made
his debut: Mysterio, portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal.
During this time, the actors for Spider-Man 4 carried on with their careers, and some
of them happen to participate in other comic adaptations.
In fact, Anne Hathaway played the role of Catwoman herself in The Dark Knight Rises.
With each appearance of Spidey in the Marvel movies, Raimi couldn’t stop thinking what
could have been of Spider-Man 4.
He admitted he can’t get that project out of his head, but he knows is always best to
look ahead.
In a time when superhero movies fill movie theaters all around the world, it still seems
strange that one the most expected movies never saw the light.
However, many of the ideas and characters from that proposal showed in the future films
of that beloved superhero, making it clear that Raimi’s vision wasn’t ridiculous.
Experience also showed us that the director, besides being a skillful professional, is
honest with himself and with others.
Spider-Man 4 doesn’t stop fans from getting closer together, they still wonder what would
have happened if it made it to movie theaters.