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I read the following today over on /film and it got me thinking…I don’t really enjoy these origin stories. We’ve all seen our fair share lately as Thor and Captain America gear up for The Avengers and whilst I understand not everyone who goes to see these films are comic book fans anymore so some context of story is required as to how these people came to be, the grounds are really rather limp.
Most heroes have their change and then we must sit through with them dealing with the change, much like Peter Parker in Spider-Man who never got over the death of his Uncle and vowed to take his revenge on the Green Goblin. Now it has been brought to light that David Fincher had a very different take on the origin for Spidey…
Fans of films that might-have-been, but never-will-be, are likely aware of David Fincher‘s history with Spider-Man. (And if you read Superhero Bits Monday, you already know about this update. We’ve simply decided to highlight in detail.)
In 1999, Fincher was on a short list to possibly make the film that ended up being Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (you can read about that here). A decade later he was once again on Sony’s wishlist before Marc Webb appropriately took the job to direct 2012′s The Amazing Spider-Man. In both cases, Fincher simply couldn’t connect with the material. We now have a pretty good idea why.
The meticulous director of Fight Club, The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, opening Tuesday, wanted to pack all of Spider-Man’s origin into an operatic music video that would have served as the opening credits before delving into a totally different story. Read his exact quote and more after the jump.
The below quote comes from io9:My impression what Spider-Man could be is very different from what Sam [Raimi] did or what Sam wanted to do. I think the reason he directed that movie was because he wanted to do the Marvel comic superhero. I was never interested in the genesis story. I couldn’t get past a guy getting bit by a red and blue spider. It was just a problem… It was not something that I felt I could do straight-faced. I wanted to start with Gwen Stacy and the Green Goblin, and I wanted to kill Gwen Stacy.
The title sequence of the movie that I was going to do was going to be a ten minute — basically a music video, an opera, which was going to be the one shot that took you through the entire Peter Parker [backstory]. Bit by a radioactive spider, the death of Uncle Ben, the loss of Mary Jane, and [then the movie] was going to begin with Peter meeting Gwen Stacy. It was a very different thing, it wasn’t the teenager story. It was much more of the guy who’s settled into being a freak.
This confirms a rumor from way back that Fincher wanted to kill a female character, in this case Mary Jane.
What I find interesting about this isn’t that Fincher had a unique take, couldn’t get past the other-worldliness of Spider-Man or wanted to streamline the origin. That all makes sense in a David Fincher sort of way. What’s interesting is that his vision, in some way, actually came to life on Broadway. Right now, every single night, Spider-Man’s origin IS an operatic music video in Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark.
Source: /film
Who knows if this would have worked out, but we see films where the opening is thrust straight into the action, I think this would have been an interesting idea. The Spider-Man sequels opening title sequence is more or less a re-telling of what has gone before so this has some water in my opinion.
But as /film suggest, we will never know how it would have played out. Give it ten years until they’re remaking the remake.