Way back...around 2010, when a Spider-Man reboot was announced, fans threw out many names to direct it. From Michael Bay to James Cameron, there was one director's pitch which seemed intriguing to me personally. It was David Fincher's idea. His idea would've focused fully on Peter's relationship with Gwen until her loss. To when he first layed his eyes on her until Peter cradles her arms.
Here's what Fincher said about his take:
"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."
I'm not fully ecstatic on the idea of possibly killing off MJ but the rest sounded interesting. It would've been interesting seeing him adapt Spider-Man: Blue, a story which is retells Gwen and Peter's love story. To me, it is one of the most powerful Spider-Man stories written. It seems like a perfect fit for David Fincher's take. He can pull off Peter being an outcast (The Social Network) and make him triumph. What I came up with is a cast of how it could've went if Sony picked him instead of Raimi.
I was hoping for Jake Gyllenhaal to play Spider-Man in Spider-Man 2 when the rumors spread about Tobey's injury. Sadly, that never happened. Still, I think that if he were given Fincher's material, he would've been out of this world. He can be funny to sad to even threatening. Just watch Donny Darko. If the rumors are true about his screentest, I sincerely hope it gets leaked at some point.
If David Fincher was going to adapt Gwen's death, there would most likely to be a Goblin. Kevin Spacey is intimidating and cold. What I don't understand about Raimi's adaption for Norman was him portraying an innocent soul with multiple personalities. I think Kevin Spacey could play the cold bastard who is aware of everything he does. He intensity his crazy on screen, the audience wonders what he's going to do next.
Rachel McAdams is a talented actress, she's beautiful and talented. After watching a ton of her films, I'm positive she'd pull off Gwen. Midnight and Paris, The Notebook (sorry not sorry) and much more of her work shows how different she can portray her roles. I'd like to see her portray that type of role.
David Fincher's last film, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo showed how versatile he is as a director. Movies like The Social Network and Fight Club are extremely different and unique, I'm sure that witha good script, he'd do great. Spider-Man: Blue reminds me of his work. His Spider-Man would be depressing though, which I'm unsure if the audience would accept.
Also, who wouldn't wanna see Trent Reznor's music video intro for Spider-Man?!