Spider-Man (2002 Film) Sam Raimi

Development

Beginning in 1975, Marvel Comics made plans to bring their characters to the big screen. In the early 1980s following the critical and commercial success of Superman (1978), which in turn was based on rival DC Comics’ flagship character Superman, Marvel Comics was in negotiations with film producers to bring their flagship character Spider-Man to the big screen. Producer Roger Corman was the first to hold an option on the Spider-Man property and began to develop the film at Orion Pictures. Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee was brought on to write a screenplay which featured Cold War themes and Doctor Octopus as the primary antagonist. The project did not come into fruition following budgetary disputes between Corman and Lee, as well as critical and commercial failure of Superman III (1983) making film adaptations of comic books a low priority.[32] The film rights were then acquired by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus of The Cannon Group for $225,000 in 1985.[33][34] The two were not familiar with the character's background and mistook Spider-Man for being similar to a werewolf-like character. Leslie Stevens, creator of The Outer Limits, was hired to write a screenplay based on this concept. Stevens' script featured Peter Parker as an ID-badge photographer who becomes subject to a mad scientist's experiment which transforms him into a human tarantula. Tobe Hooper, who was preparing to shoot The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Invaders from Mars for Cannon, signed on to direct.[35] Lee hated the horror route the studio was taking with the character and demanded that a new script be written that was closer to the source material.[36][37]

By 1985, a new script was being written by Ted Newsom and John Brancato. In this version, Peter Parker receives his spider-like abilities from a cyclotron experiment. Doctor Octopus served as the antagonist and was written as Parker's mentor turned enemy. Barney Cohen was brought in to do a rewrite which added humor, additional action scenes, and a supporting villain.[38] Newsom and Brancato had John Cusack in mind for the part of Peter Parker.[39] Cannon hired Joseph Zito to direct the film having previously directed the commercially successful Invasion U.S.A. for the studio. For the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, the studio considered Tom Cruise while Zito was interested in casting actor and stuntman Scott Leva who had previously done promotional appearances as Spider-Man for Marvel.[40] Bob Hoskins was considered for Doctor Octopus while Lauren Bacall and Katharine Hepburn were considered for Aunt May. The role of Uncle Ben was considered for Gregory Peck and Paul Newman. Lee expressed his desire to play J. Jonah Jameson in the film. The project was tentatively titled Spider-Man: The Movie and was budgeted between $15–20 million. Following the critical and financial failure of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Masters of the Universe which were produced by Cannon, the budget for Spider-Man: The Movie was cut to $7 million. Joseph Zito was unwilling to compromise and stepped down as director. He was replaced by Albert Pyun who was willing to make the film at a lower budget. The project was cancelled following Cannon's acquisition by Pathé and Golan's departure from the studio.[35]

Golan extended his option on Spider-Man during his tenure as CEO of 21st Century Film Corporation. By 1989, Golan attempted to revive the project using the original script, budget, and storyboards developed at Cannon. In order to receive production funds, Golan sold the television rights to Viacom, home video rights to Columbia Pictures, and theatrical rights to Carolco Pictures where James Cameron became attached to write and direct the film.[41] Cameron had previously met with Stan Lee to discuss a possible X-Men film until Lee convinced Cameron that he would be a good choice to direct a Spider-Man film.[42] Cameron said superheroes were always fanciful to him.[43][44] James Cameron submitted a treatment to Carolco in 1993,[45] which served as a darker, more mature take on the character's mythos. In addition to featuring Spider-Man's origin story, it also included reimagined versions of the villains Electro and Sandman; the former was portrayed as a megalomaniacal businessman named Carlton Strand, while the latter was written as Strand's personal bodyguard named Boyd. Cameron's treatment also featured heavy profanity, and a sex scene between Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson atop the Brooklyn Bridge. Carolco set a $50 million budget for Spider-Man, but progress stalled when Golan sued Carolco for attempting to make the film without his involvement.[46] Cameron had recently completed True Lies for 20th Century Fox as part of a production deal with the studio. Fox attempted to acquire the film rights to Spider-Man for Cameron but this proved unsuccessful. At this point, James Cameron had abandoned the project and began work on Titanic and other things.[47][48] He would reveal in a 1997 interview on The Howard Stern Show that he had Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio in mind for the lead role.[49] In 1995, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) acquired 21st Century Film Corporation which had given them access to the previous Spider-Man scripts. MGM then sued Viacom, Sony Pictures, and Marvel, who they accused of fraud in the original deal with Cannon. The following year, 21st Century, Carolco, and Marvel would all file for bankruptcy.[50]

No film studio showed interest in a Spider-Man movie following the disastrous reception of Batman & Robin in 1997, after which film studios no longer took the superhero genre seriously and had the perception that "comic books were for kids". However, the release of Blade by New Line Cinema in 1998 and the development of X-Men by 20th Century Fox convinced some studios that a Marvel character "could carry on" a movie.[51] Marvel would emerge from bankruptcy in 1998 and declare that Menahem Golan's option had expired and that the rights had reverted to them. Marvel would then sell the film rights to Sony Pictures Entertainment, Columbia Pictures' parent company for $7 million.[52] The deal came to effect in March 1999.[53]

While John Calley was in work, training at Columbia, he sought with Kevin McClory's claim to develop an unofficial James Bond movie franchise, partially based on the material used on Thunderball, and also had the rights to the novel Casino Royale.[54] MGM and Danjaq also had to sue Sony Pictures and Spectre Associates, regarding claims of how the McClory film with Sony has been demonstrated.[55] The final blow came in March 1999, when Sony traded the Casino Royale film rights to MGM for the company's own Spider-Man project, thus starting right to production.[56][57]

In April 1999, although Sony Pictures optioned from MGM all preceding script versions of a Spider-Man film, it only exercised the options on "the Cameron material", which contractually included a multi-author screenplay and a forty-five-page "scriptment" credited only to James Cameron. The studio announced they were not hiring Cameron himself to direct the film nor would they be using his script.[58] The studio lined up Roland Emmerich, Tony Scott, Chris Columbus, Barry Sonnenfeld, Tim Burton, Michael Bay, Ang Lee, David Fincher, Jan de Bont and M. Night Shyamalan as potential directors.[59][60] However, most of the directors approached were less interested in the job than in the story itself.[51] Fincher did not want to depict the origin story as he felt it was "dumb", pitching the film as being based on The Night Gwen Stacy Died storyline, but the studio weren't interested.[61][62][63][64] Columbus would later pass on the project to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone instead.[65] Burton expressed a lack of interest by remarking that he was "just a DC guy", given his past work in Batman and Batman Returns.[51] Amy Pascal's choice for director was Sam Raimi.[66] Raimi was attached to direct in January 2000, for a summer 2001 release.[67][68] He had been a fan of the comic book during his youth, and his passion for Spider-Man earned him the job.[69] Raimi's agent Josh Donen warned him that he was not Sony's preferred choice for the job, leading Raimi to cite all his reasons for which he would be the ideal director for the project during a meeting with Pascal, producer Laura Ziskin, Calley, Marvel Studios chief Avi Arad and film executive Matt Tolmach before abruptly ending his pitch after one hour, not wanting to overstay if Sony's executives did not want him.[51]

David Koepp was brought aboard to write the screenplay and Cameron's work became the basis of his first draft screenplay, often word for word.[70] Koepp said that Cameron's script was "influential".[71] Koepp pitched the idea of having Peter Parker not getting his Spider-Man suit until after the film's first forty five minutes so they could stretch out the origin story and that Peter and Mary Jane would not get together at the end, feeling that them ending apart was romantic.[51] Cameron's versions of the Marvel villains Electro and Sandman remained the antagonists. Koepp's rewrite substituted the Green Goblin as the main antagonist and added Doctor Octopus as the secondary antagonist.[72] Raimi felt the Green Goblin and the surrogate father-son theme between Norman Osborn and Peter Parker would be more interesting, thus, he dropped Doctor Octopus from the film.[73] In June, Columbia hired Scott Rosenberg to rewrite Koepp's material. Remaining a constant in all the rewrites was the "organic webshooter" idea from the Cameron "scriptment".[74] Raimi felt he would stretch the audience's suspension of disbelief too far to have Parker invent mechanical webshooters.[75] this decision was controversial with long-time fans.[76]

Rosenberg removed Doctor Octopus and created several new action sequences.[77] Raimi felt adding a third origin story would make the film too complex. Sequences removed from the final film had Spider-Man protecting Maximilian Fargas, the wheelchair-using Oscorp executive, from the Goblin, and Spider-Man defusing a hostage situation on a train.[61] As production neared, Ziskin hired award-winning writer Alvin Sargent, to polish the dialogue, primarily between Parker and Mary Jane.[78] Columbia gave the Writers Guild of America a list of four writers as contributors to the final Spider-Man script: Rosenberg, Sargent and James Cameron, all three of whom voluntarily relinquished credit to the fourth, Koepp.[70]

Casting

For the titular role, the filmmakers wanted someone who was not "extraordinarily tall or handsome as Christopher Reeve", but who could have the "heart and soul" for the audience to identify with.[51] The studio had expressed interest in actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Freddie Prinze Jr., Chris O'Donnell, Jude Law, Chris Klein, Ewan McGregor, Wes Bentley, and Heath Ledger.[79][61][80][81][82] DiCaprio had been considered by James Cameron for the role in 1995, while Raimi joked that Prinze "won't even be allowed to buy a ticket to see this film".[83][61] Sony made overtures to Law about Spider-Man.[81] Pascal and her fellow executives pursued Ledger for the role due to her past collaborations, whereas Raimi met with Bentley but did not meet with DiCaprio or Ledger.[51] Bentley turned down the role as he was uninterested in superhero movies.[84] (Bentley would later play villain Blackheart / Legion in the film Ghost Rider.) In addition, actors Scott Speedman, Jay Rodan and James Franco were involved in screen tests for the lead role (Franco would ultimately land the role of Harry Osborn).[85] Joe Manganiello also auditioned for the role.[86] He would eventually win the role as Parker's bully, Eugene "Flash" Thompson.[86] Tobey Maguire was ultimately cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in July 2000, having been Sam Raimi's primary choice for the role after he saw The Cider House Rules.[87][27] The studio was initially hesitant to cast someone who did not seem to fit the ranks of "adrenaline-pumping, tail-kicking titans", but Maguire managed to impress studio executives with his audition.[87] The actor was signed for a deal in the range of $3 to $4 million with higher salary options for two sequels.[87] To prepare, Maguire was trained by a physical trainer, a yoga instructor, a martial arts expert, and a climbing expert, taking several months to improve his physique.[75][88] Maguire studied spiders and worked with a wire man to simulate the arachnid-like motion and had a special diet, though he tried to be as fit as possible due to being a vegan.[89][51]

Nicolas Cage, Jason Isaacs, John Malkovich and Billy Bob Thornton were considered for the role of Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, but turned down the role.[90][91][92][93] Willem Dafoe was cast as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in November 2000.[94] Raimi met with Dafoe while he was filming a movie in Spain.[95] Dafoe was intrigued by the prospect of working with Raimi and the idea of making a film based on comic books.[51][96] Dafoe insisted on wearing the Green Goblin costume himself, as he felt that a stuntman would not convey the character's necessary body language. The 580-piece suit took half an hour to put on.[61]

Kate Bosworth unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Mary Jane Watson.[97] Elizabeth Banks also auditioned for the role but she was told by producer Laura Ziskin that she was too old for the role and was cast as Betty Brant instead.[98][99] Kate Hudson turned down the role.[100] Eliza Dushku, Mena Suvari and Jaime King also auditioned for the role.[101][102] Before Raimi cast Kirsten Dunst, he had smitten the idea of casting Alicia Witt.[103][104] Dunst decided to audition after learning Maguire had been cast, feeling the film would have a more independent feel.[105] Dunst earned the role a month before shooting in an audition in Berlin.[61] Her hair was dyed in the front and she wore a half-wig.[106] The crew wanted her to straighten her teeth but she refused.[107]

J. K. Simmons was cast as J. Jonah Jameson, though he learned about his casting through a Spider-Man fan who had read the news of his casting at a fan website three hours before his agent contacted him to inform him that he had gotten the role.[108] Despite Stan Lee's longtime interest in playing Jameson, the filmmakers agreed that he was too old to convincingly play the part, but Lee was supportive of Simmons' casting, feeling that Simmons did better than he would have done.[109]

Hugh Jackman, who starred as Logan / Wolverine in the X-Men film series, stated in September 2013 that he was approached to appear as Wolverine in the film in either a gag or just for a cameo appearance. However, when Jackman arrived to New York to shoot the scene, plans for his appearance never materialized because the filmmakers were unable to get the costume Jackman had used in X-Men.[110]

Filming

With Spider-Man cast, filming was set to begin November 2000 in New York City and on Sony soundstages. The film was set for release in November 2 2001, but was postponed to be released on May 3, 2002, due to an expected extended post-production schedule.[87][111]

Principal photography officially began on January 8, 2001, in Culver City, California.[78] After the September 11 attacks happened that year, certain sequences were re-filmed, and a shot of the Twin Towers was removed from the film which can be found on the Sony Stock Footage website.[112][113][114] Sony's Stage 29 was used for Parker's Forest Hills home, and Stage 27 was used for the wrestling sequence where Parker takes on Bonesaw McGraw (Randy Savage). Stage 27 was also used for the complex Times Square sequence where Spider-Man and the Goblin battle for the first time, where a three-story set with a breakaway balcony piece was built. The scene also required shooting in Downey, California.[115] On March 6, 45-year-old construction worker Tim Holcombe was killed when a forklift modified as a construction crane crashed into a construction basket that he was in.[116] The following court case led to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health to fine Sony $58,805.[117]

Raimi rented out a Warner Bros. Studio lot for the set to use to film the upside down kiss scene.[118] Kirsten Dunst said that filming the upside down kiss scene was "awful", saying that Maguire could not breathe as water was pouring down into his nose while he was hanging upside down.[119][120] Maguire also said that he was gasping for air.[121] He and Franco had tension on set due to Franco's infatuation with Dunst, who was dating Maguire at the time.[122] Randy Savage refused a stunt double to do a mid-flip, resulting in injuring himself.[123] The scene where Peter catches Mary Jane and the food tray was done completely in camera, with Maguire's hand glued to the tray. The scene took 156 takes in 16 hours to accomplish.[124][125]

In Los Angeles, locations included the Natural History Museum (for the Columbia University lab where Parker is bitten and receives his powers), the Pacific Electricity Building (the Daily Bugle offices) and Greystone Mansion (for the interiors of Norman Osborn's home), the latter of which was the set that was used for Batman.[126] On April 4, Spider-Man costumes were stolen, and Sony put up a $25,000 reward for their return.[127] They were recovered after 18 months and a former movie studio security guard and an accomplice were arrested.[128][129][130] Production moved to New York City for two weeks, taking in locations such as the Queensboro Bridge, the exteriors of Columbia University's Low Memorial Library and the New York Public Library, and a rooftop garden in the Rockefeller Center.[115] The crew returned to Los Angeles where production continued, filming wrapped in June 2001.[78] The Flatiron Building was used for the Daily Bugle.[78]

Design

The Green Goblin's original headgear was an animatronic mask created by Amalgamated Dynamics.[131] Dafoe described it as a "Halloween mask" and "kind of silly-looking", and the designers instead came up with a modern, angular helmet.[51] Dafoe also wanted the costume to be flexible enough to allow him to do splits.[132]

To create Spider-Man's costume, Maguire was fitted for the skintight suit, being covered with layers of substance to create the suit's shape.[133] One concept costume designer James Acheson became fond of was the idea of having a red emblem over a black costume. Another, which would eventually lead to the final product, featured an enlarged logo on the chest and red stripes going down the sides of the legs.[61] In early development, Acheson experimented with a potential helmet-like design for the suit, which was then scrapped. It was designed as a single piece, including the mask. A hard shell was worn underneath the mask to make the shape of the head look better and to keep the mask tight while keeping the wearer comfortable. For scenes in which Spider-Man would take his mask off, there was an alternate suit where the mask was a separate piece. The webbing, which accented the costume, was cut by computer. The mask eye lenses were designed to have a mirror look.[134]

For the spider that gives Peter his powers in the film, Raimi selected the Steatoda grossa, which was painted with red and blue makeup.[135]

Visual effects

Visual effects supervisor John Dykstra was hired to produce the film's visual effects in May 2000.[136] Dykstra met with Raimi while he was filming The Gift (2000).[137] He convinced Raimi to make many of the stunts computer-generated imagery, as they would have been physically impossible. Raimi had used more traditional special effects in his previous films and learned a lot about using computers during production.[69] Raimi worked hard to plan all the sequences of Spider-Man swinging from buildings, which he described as, "ballet in the sky." The complexity of such sequences meant the budget rose from an initially planned $70 million to around $100 million.[27] Shots were made more complicated because of the main characters' individual color schemes, so Spider-Man and the Green Goblin had to be shot separately for effects shots: Spider-Man was shot in front of a greenscreen, while the Green Goblin was shot against bluescreen. Shooting them together would have resulted in one character being erased from a shot.[61][138][139]

Dykstra said the biggest difficulty of creating Spider-Man was that as the character was masked, it immediately lost a lot of characterization. Without the context of eyes or mouth, a lot of body language had to be put in so that there would be emotional content. Raimi wanted to convey the essence of Spider-Man as being, "the transition that occurs between him being a young man going through puberty and being a superhero." Dykstra said his crew of animators had never reached such a level of sophistication to give subtle hints of still making Spider-Man feel like a human being.[140] When two studio executives were shown shots of the computer generated character, they believed it was actually Maguire performing stunts.[61] In addition, Dykstra's crew had to composite areas of New York City and replaced every car in shots with digital models. Raimi did not want it to feel entirely like animation, so none of the shots were 100% computer-generated.[141]