The 2002 Spider-Man was a huge hit. It gave fans a new intro into comic book characters that we hadn’t had yet. DC had the success of Batman under its belt, but this was the first Marvel/Sony property revealed on the big screen. The movie featured a fresh young face in Tobey Maguire, and it gave moviegoers a look at some incredible special effects that we had never imagined possible.
It also launched director Sam Raimi’s career into a whole new world as well. Previously making cult classics like The Evil Dead and Army of Darkness, this solidified Raimi’s mainstream appeal, giving him a whole trilogy to mold for the masses. But he wasn’t the only director up for the job. In a recent interview with Variety on the 20th anniversary of that first Spider-Man movie’s release, Raimi recalled:
“My agent, Josh Donen, said, ‘They want to be honest with you. There’s about 18 directors they’d rather have than you on a list.’ And I said, ‘OK, well, tell them I’m number 19.’”
One of those other 18 was, of course, the director who had had such success with the Batman franchise, Tim Burton. Spider-Man writer, David Koepp, remembers the studio meeting with Burton, telling Variety:
“I remember Amy telling me that they’d met with Tim Burton, who in the meeting said, ‘I guess I’m just a DC guy,’ which seems like someone who’s not really trying hard to get the job.”
His heart just wasn’t in it, and you can’t fault him for that. It sounds like heart is a lot of the reason Raimi did end up getting the job. The report says that in Raimi’s interview for the job, Raimi started talking about why he loves Spider-Man so much. He talked about the painting of the web-slinger that hung on his childhood bedroom wall. He talked about how Spidey’s alter ego, Peter Parker, was the first time a nerdy kid like Raimi could actually see himself as a superhero and not some goofy sidekick. He talked about how Spider-Man’s co-creator, Stan Lee, gave life to a character whose foibles and failures were just as important, if not more so, than his astonishing powers and death-defying feats of bravery.
And the rest is history. The movie went on to make $825 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing superhero movie of all time by a considerable margin, paving the way for the superhero movies that came after it.
So happy anniversary to Spider-Man! Give it a rewatch to celebrate.