Before Sam Raimi signed on to take the helm of the first Spider-Man movie, David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, The Killer) was in line to direct the project, but his take on the material would have been very different!
During a new interview with The Guardian to promote his latest film, The Killer, Fincher revealed that he pitched the studio on an idea that would have left out a major - many would say vital - element of Peter Parker's comic book history.
Fincher's version would have skipped the whole “bitten by a radioactive spider” part and began with Parker as a grownup.
“They weren’t f*cking interested,” he laughed. “And I get it. They were like: ‘Why would you want to eviscerate the origin story?’ And I was like: ‘’Cos it’s dumb?’ That origin story means a lot of things to a lot of people, but I looked at it and I was like: ‘A red and blue spider?’ There’s a lot of things I can do in my life and that’s just not one of them.”
We're not sure how the concept of a red and blue radioactive spider is any "dumber" than a guy developing arachnid-like abilities after being bitten by one, but perhaps Fincher was also planning to make some alterations to Spidey's power-set!
If so, he doesn't mention it, but he does admit that he was a comic book fan when he was a kid - although he said he was “mostly reading American Cinematographer when I was 10. By the time Frank Miller was reinventing Batman, I think I’d moved to Hollywood.”
To be fair, Spider-Man: Homecoming also left out this part of Parker's origin, but that was mainly due to the fact that it had been covered in two separate franchises beforehand.
The Killer is based on a graphic novel, but that's the closest the acclaimed filmmaker has ever come to helming a "superhero movie," and we can't see that changing anytime soon!
What do you make of Fincher's Spider-Man pitch? Would you like to see him direct a comic book film? Drop us a comment down below.
"Spider-Man" centers on student Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) who, after being bitten by a genetically-altered spider, gains superhuman strength and the spider-like ability to cling to any surface. He vows to use his abilities to fight crime, coming to understand the words of his beloved Uncle Ben: "With great power comes great responsibility."