Spider-Man is set to swing back into theatres this coming week with the release of Marvel and Sony’s Spider-Man: Far From Home marking the web-slinger’s seventh live-action solo movie since director Sam Raimi first brought him to the big screen in 2002 after almost two decades of development hell.
Having briefly been optioned by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, the feature film rights to Spider-Man went to cult studio Cannon Films, with Cannon’s Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus paying $225,000 for a five-year option on the iconic comic book character and planning a drastically different take on the Spidey mythos.
Taking a leaf out of The Fly’s book and tapping Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) to direct from a script by Leslie Stevens (The Outer Limits), Cannon’s Spider-Man film would have seen an evil scientist deliberately bombarding photographer Peter Parker with radiation, transforming him into a mutated, suicidal eight-limbed human/spider hybrid who is then forced to battle a succession of the scientist’s grotesque creations.
Understandably displeased with this take on his iconic creation, Marvel’s Stan Lee pushed for Cannon to develop a more traditional take on the material, although this too failed to materialise and the rights subsequently passed through the hands of Golan’s 21st Century Film, Caralco Pictures and MGM before ending up at Sony’s Columbia Pictures in 1999. And the rest, as they say, is history…
Peter Parker returns in Spider-Man: Far From Home, the next chapter of the Spider-Man: Homecoming series! Our friendly neighborhood Super Hero decides to join his best friends Ned, MJ, and the rest of the gang on a European vacation. However, Peter’s plan to leave super heroics behind for a few weeks are quickly scrapped when he begrudgingly agrees to help Nick Fury uncover the mystery of several elemental creature attacks, creating havoc across the continent!
Spider-Man: Far From Home features the return of Tom Holland (Spider-Man), Marisa Tomei (Aunt May), Zendaya (Michelle), Jacob Batalon (Ned Leeds), Angourie Rice (Betty Brant), Tony Revolori (Flash Thompson), Martin Star (Mr. Harrington), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) and Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), with Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler) as Mysterio.
Originally published July 1, 2019. Updated July 10, 2019.
