In the early 1990s, following The Cannon Group's failed attempt at a Spider-Man film, Carolco Pictures acquired the rights and hired James Cameron to direct and produce. In 1992, Cameron submitted a detailed scriptment for an R-rated movie filled with swearing, teen angst, and hormones, in which Spider-Man battles against Electro and Sandman atop the World Trade Center.
Ultimately, the movie fell through; this was partially due to Carolco's rapidly-deteriorating financial situation (a similar situation had befell Cannon Films), and because of legal battles, both involving contract details regarding writing credits and claims by 20th Century Fox that James Cameron had an exclusive contract with them. The legal mess continued for several years, and ultimately ended with Sony Pictures Entertainment claiming the rights; their take on the property emerged in 2002.
A copy of the scriptment can be read here
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This Scriptment has examples of…
- Adaptational Backstory Change:
- The spider that bit Peter in the comics was irradiated after getting caught in the beam of a radiation experiment. Here, it ate a genetically altered fly before biting Peter.
- In the comics Max Dillon became Electro after being struck by lightning while working on power lines. In the scriptment, Carlton Strand was up in an art installation designed to refract lightning in a dazzling light show, while running from the cops.
- Sandman's origin is the least changed, with both Flint Marko and Boyd being caught up in nuclear experiments which turned their bodies into living sand. However, Flint Marko was an escaped convict while Boyd was a maintenance worker who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Flash Thompson, by this point in the comics he'd been firmly established as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, here he's Mary Jane's abusive boyfriend who at one point tries to rape her.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: Much like the Sam Raimi films, Peter's webs are organic here.
- Adaptation Name Change: Electro and Sandman's real names are changed to Carlton Strand and Boyd, respectively.
- Cheap Costume: Inverted, the Halloween costume Peter buys to replace the one that got wrecked in his first fight with Electro is actually better made than the one he made himself.
- Darker and Edgier: Enough so to make Yu Komori's life look like a typical Spidey adventure.
- Death by Origin Story: Uncle Ben, obviously.
- Death by Secret Identity: Downplayed, Electro was already bleeding out when Peter revealed his identity to him.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: As dark as the overall story is, it does end on a largely positive note: Peter overcomes his doubts and, as Spider-Man, defeats Electro and Sandman, and is seen as a hero by most of the people of New York, Peter and Mary Jane graduate and, even though they're going to different colleges, are going to keep a long distance relationship.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Spidey gets a hard time from the Bugle in both versions. It's actually specifically invoked by Electro who both buys the Daily Bugle and orders Jonah to run a massive smear campaign on Spider-Man as part of a big plan to get the wall crawler to join his gang.
- Hotter and Sexier: As exemplified by Spidey and MJ having sex on top of the Brooklyn Bridge.
- Penny Shaving: Electro was able to become a billionaire crime lord by using his powers to embezzle "half cents" from bank accounts around the world into his own.
- Smooth-Talking Talent Agent: One sees Peter using his powers in the street and offers to make him famous, only to cheat Peter out of his fair share of the profits.
- Wife-Basher Basher: Spidey attempts to save a woman from her abusive husband, only for the two of them to gang up on Spidey.
- He fares much better the second time around, when he totals Flash's car after he finds out he's been abusing MJ.
