Part Two:The Original Amazing Spider-Man, Cannon Era and Camron Era

Part Two:The Original Amazing Spider-Man, Cannon Era and Camron Era

Part Two in the 6 part spider-man film retrospective. We dive deep into the film that started a TV Series, and a 25 year old cutthroat battle for Spidey :D

Editorial Opinion
By Parker2017 - Feb 08, 2013 12:02 AM EST
Filed Under: Spider-Man
Source: Spider-man's film history

CONTENT:
Part 1: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/spider-man_movies/news/?a=72597
-Incredible Hulk Theory- : http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fan_fic/news/?a=73197
Part 2: Coming Soon
Part 3: Coming Soon
Part 4: Coming Soon
Part 5: Coming Soon
Part 6: Coming Soon



Part Two: The Original Amazing Spider-Man [1977], The Canon Years and James Camron’s Spider-Man.


Hello and welcome I’m the Nostalgia Critic and this is the wrong script I’m writing for. :D

Today before anything I’d like to go over a few things for how this article is going to work. I will start with background, write the review, and break the review into the GOOD, the BAD [both are self explanatory] and the NITPICKY, where I just list the traditional complains any fan boy has like “his shirts too small.” Or “that’s not a quip!” that entire nit picking things that everyone does. Keep in mind these three things, I will not use any commentary form directors, actors etc, I will keep each series as standalone and will not talk about deleted scenes, etc. I try to do my best to write these articles with as much of a non-bias as possible then get into my Opinions and reasons why, finally Keep in Mind the Incredible Hulk Theory: [which does have a Grey area but it wasn’t the main point of the article and please keep this theory in mind.] so without further ado, here comes The Amazing spider-man!


Back in 1977, we took a trip to what is dub by Marvel.wika.com as Earth-730911 or in this case, the Amazing Spider-man. Which I think Marc Webb must have a real affection for, because some of the effects are very, and I do mean VERY familiar[ Okay he pretty ripped off a lot form this movie when it came to practical stunts, and locations, and film shoot, and a lot of things,etc.) .

Written by Alvin Broetz and directed by E.W. Swackhamer (which to me sounds like a porn star of the 70’s.) Became the first writer and director with producers Charles Fries and Dan Goodman to create the first ever live action spider-man film; Marvel was trying to break into other forms of media since the early 70’s and handed the film rights to Fries and Goodman who released the film in cinemas & on CBS on September 14th 1977. The 90 min film was successful enough to spawn a short lived (two seasons) live action show also called the Amazing Spider-man that ran form 1978-79.

The Film [and series] featured Nickolas Hammond as Peter Parker/ Spider-Man and The Late Jeff Downell as Aunt May. The Late David White also played J. Jonah Jameson, well get into all of these and more later. The whole film was film in and around Los Angeles, California.
Stan Lee was quoted saying he didn’t like the film or show, disowning it, why? Is it that bad, is this like spider-man 3? Or as awful as One More Day; well what’s the film about? Funny since Stan Lee was consulting on the script.

THE PLOT: in a nutshell University student Peter Parker (Nicolas Hammond) is trying to get a job at the daily Bugle when he is bitten by a radioactive spider, gains powers and is off to stop an evil Guru Name Monahan (Bob Hastings) with the powers of mind control who will kill ten New Yorkers and have them commit suicide if he doesn’t get 50 million dollars. Also random new love interest appears with the “latest and greatest practical effects.” These effects include really nice POV Shots, practical web swinging, and using a green screen to climb up buildings.

You can watch the full film here:



The film is, Boring, that’s it really. There is No Uncle Ben; no great power Comes responsibility, not any of that. We just have some really good practical effects, some really kickass POV Shots, few good side characters, and Spider-man is at least on the big screen/ CBS in the 70’s. We also have a nice production value that was film in L.A. (many Locations you can spot in the newest reboot/remake TASM 2012) and how Nicholas Hammond was picked, is a little bit like how Andrew Garfield was picked. There are some strange coincidences with both versions of The Amazing Spider-Man. Both filmed in L.A. and have some of the same effects and shots, the main difference is well, we’ll get to that by the end of the year. Peter Parker is totally inactive. He just does what the plot tries to force him to do, is he likable? Kind of, he’s not as charming as McGurie or Garfield, but he isn’t completely deadpan, he actually tries to do something.

The Fact Stan Lee worked on the film and consulted on how what Peter would sound like, and the script story itself. To paraphrase Linkara from A Top the Fourth Wall. “I Really Like Stan Lee and Spider-Man.” D:
So let’s cut right to the chase and talk about the good, the bad, and the nitpick-y.

THE GOOD:
The Stunt work is AMAZING. It really is with how they have Spidey do spider-like poses, hmm….and No CGI. It’s pretty cool. Dated but cool. Kato’s to the Stunt Team, and Practical effects team.

POV Shots: okay they strapped a Camera to a guy’s head and have him Jump off buildings and such not only is that ballsy but gives a better effect then the other version has done thus far.
This is real practical web slinging and its pretty interesting to see how it works, along with Chorography with some of the fight scenes; it brings this world into a more believable real world.

Peter Parker: while he isn’t the best version there is some light heartless, and Nicolas Hammond’s take is a true marvel on how serious he took the character, there are moments of real genuine emotions to him.

Fun: while boring the film did have a few nice fun moments, Like the argument that Peter and has banter with his friend David (who wears this awesome Captain America Shirt). You tell the cast was having fun, which is a great thing for everyone to have.

THE BAD:


The plot itself was, well Take it away Christopher Daniel Barnes:
Yeah, the villain seemed just as half ass, and ten people for 50 million dollars? Okay it was the freaking 1970’s but there are better plots to do.

Peter Parker: Now I do like Nicholas Hammond for trying his best but Peter Parker isn’t really proactive. He never calls himself spider-man, its J. Jonah Jameson who name’s him. He really doesn’t do anything and makes Toby’s spider-man and Peter Parker look more proactive.

J. Jonah Jameson: IS CALM?! WHAT?! He’s not like the guy in the comic’s, he’s just well Perry white. While both characters have some familiar quarks, they aren’t the Same Person. Somebody didn’t gave David White the memo that Jameson Is cranky, Mean, can be funny in current 616 universe he’s the freaking Mayor! So many things they could of done, but that’s really it. He doesn’t do that much.

Monahan: Okay the villain sucks, there’s no way of saying it otherwise but a Gruru who uses mind control when he gets paid by the loads, I don’t see Tony Roberts using Mind control on people. I don’t see this working at all. He at least has some motive compared to future villains like the Lizard at least.
THE NITPICK-Y: * represents Fanboy and Fangirl’s rage.
The villain is weak.
The Suit is probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen next to another suit.
No Stan Lee Cameo NYAAAAAAAAH!*
That’s not how webs work NYAAAAAAAAAAAH!*
The music is stupid, and is just TOO CHEESEY. It’s not spider-man its cheesy 70’s music.

THE CANON YEARS: These guys are truly infamous if there name sounds somewhat familiar or not, they where the guys who created and did Superman 4: Quest for Peace and He-Man Masters of the Universe [the film]. Back in 1985 after a brief holding of Spider-Man’s film rights where with none other than the legendary Low Budget Producer Roger Corman. The founding cousin’s of Cannon “Cannon chiefs Menahem Golan and his cousin Yoram Globus agreed to pay Marvel Comics $225,000 over the five-year option period plus a percentage of the film’s revenues. The rights would revert to Marvel if a film was not made by April 1990.

Scott Shea as Spider-Man:


Tobe Hooper, then preparing both Invaders From Mars and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, was mooted as director. Golan and Globus misunderstood the concept of the character ("They thought it was like The Wolf Man", said director Joseph Zito and instructed writer Leslie Stevens, creator of The Outer Limits, to write a treatment reflecting their misconception. In Stevens’ story, a corporate scientist intentionally subjects ID-badge photographer Peter Parker to radioactive bombardment, transforming him into a hairy, suicidal, eight-armed monster. The human tarantula refuses to join the scientist’s new master-race of mutants, battling a succession of mutations kept in a basement laboratory.” – Spider-Man in Film; Wikipedia.com.

Well Spider-man was going to look like this guy here: http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/11100000/Fang-and-Kitten-teen-titans-couples-11194949-480-360.jpg Yeah, Gwen and Peter would make a terrible couple in that universe. I’m glad we didn’t get that version of Spider-Man.

Oh wait it gets much more weird and fascinating. Well Stan was angry with this, and he demanded a new script. The cousins said Okay and while they fixed Spider-man they well, added “ The cyclotron accident which "creates" Spider-Man also deforms the scientist into Doctor Octopus and results in his mad pursuit of proof of the Fifth Force. Ock reconstructs his cyclotron and causes electromagnetic abnormalities, anti-gravity effects, and bilocation which threatens to engulf New York and the world.” – Spider-Man in Film; Wikipedia.com.

Also because of the new script was another variation on the Origin story, writers Ted Newsom & John Brancato were also along with director Barmy Cohen who added a new villain, additional scenes and the infamous catch phrase for Doc Ock. “Okey-dokey” if you’re going to blame anyone these guys’s where responsible for that one. While casting never really materialized, Joseph Zito’s (who replace Tobe Hooper as director) Cast was impressive, he would of gotten Bob Hoskins as Doc Ock, Lauren Bacall or Katharine Hepburn as Aunt May, Adolph Caesar as a police Detective, Stan Lee wanted to play J. Jonah himself. Also Spider-man was to be played by actor/ stuntman Scott Leva (who actually made public appearances, as Spidey himself, along with working for Marvel and did poses, photographs as the ol’ webhead.) Also a few new writers where added into the pool. “Along with Producer Golbus [who credited himself as Joseph Goldman] writers Shepard Goldman, Don Michael Paul, and finally Ethan Wily, and the company workhorse Albert Pyun was attach as director, who also added his own rewrites to the script.”

While Scott was still assorted with the project well I’ll let him explain in this Quote: "Ted Newsom and John Brancato had written the script. It was good but it needed a little work. Unfortunately, with every subsequent rewrite by other writers, it went from good to bad to terrible." I honestly don’t know how you can make it worst form doc ock to saying Okey-Dokey to calling himself spider-man and having even worst dialogue. I don’t want to know.

Well things where about to change for Cannon as in 1989 the cousins broke up and while Cannon disappeared Golbus decided to add more to his script, he even sold his shares and worked with Pathe’ the film company. Golan started his own company called 21st Century Film Corp. While he got to keep the rights to Spider-man he took on scripting duties and tried to finance the film. “Even touting it at Cannes film festival and extended his Option on Spider-man to 1992.

But as standard practices go, Golan pre-sold the unmade film to raise production funds, with television rights bought by Viacom and home video rights by Columbia Pictures.” wow! I knew Sony had a stake in this somehow, why am I not surprised at this turn of events, interestingly enough Golan wanted to establish a massive studio franchise.(which he sort of did) Stephen Herek was attached as director at this point. Also Golan sent an “updated draft” which just had 1989 instead of 1985, talk about a cheap knock off script, that’s Hollywood for yeah. "Well Columbia requested another rewrite so Golab hired a disinterest Frank LaLoggia for a rewrite and Neil Ruttenberg for one more draft.
W
hile at Columbia, their script analysts considered all three submissions "essentially the same story." So instead of changing it they set up a tentative production deal. Said Stan Lee in 1990 was quoted saying "21st Century [is] supposed to do Spider-Man and now they're talking to Columbia and the way it looks now, Columbia may end up buying Spider-Man from 21st Century." Stan Lee is psychic! This was just mere steps into ushering in what I like to call the Camron Era!

Before that, Golan still considered himself the sole heir of spider-man’s film franchise, well Carolco pictures obtain the rights and gave a script that, just added James Carmon’s name, and Marvel executive Joseph Calimari. With a 1993 date attach, well it was the same script with just adding new names and updating the date, Camron who had no hand in the script was slated to direct and he even wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger to be Doc Ock who was said to be with the project [on and off]. Well this is why I never trust Verity if you’re going to get something done do it with facts and not bullshizz! Freaking mooks, and here we begin what I call the glorious Cameron Era.



THE CAMRON YEARS:
Imagine if you will for a second that Sam Rami and Marc Webb’s Spider-man movies were fused together. Now A lot of fans would say that would be perfect, well a lot of elements from both Where found in this scirptment form 1991. The 47 page half script half summary was weird, and had some really good genuine moments. Like Spider-man was actually funny, I cracked up at some of the humor, Electro was awesome and organic webshooters where mixed with mechanical web shooters.

Electro and Sandman where in it, but Sandman gets turn into glass, Spidey kills electro with the final battle being on top of the twin towers in the rain, Spidey also tends to be very fond of the F-Bomb and this being an R-Rated Spider-man film. The Origin story actually WAS faithful to the comic’s, Peter uses his powers in a variety of ways, he’s scared and one day wakes up in his underwear 80 stories above and freaks out, uncle Ben’s in it, and he seems to give the power is responsibility speech form TASM film, well a variation of it to Peter at least. It was also very early nineties with how everyone talked, to how everyone act. Peter and MJ screw one another on the Brooklyn Bridge, well they were on the top at night so no one actually saw them do it but it’s in there. So it’s really mixed but I’D Love to see what it would look like, there’s an article on here which you can look here to know more about Camron’s era in Spider-man: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/88Mph/news/?a=13149

Also here is the Link to fan made storyboards’ and the scriptment itself if you’re interested in reading it: http://dantom.altervista.org/spider_ing_script.html

I’d recommend anyone who’s interested in spider-man, or film, or James Camron to read the scriptment it’s an interesting piece on what could have been. Next Time we will explore Sam Rami’s first take into the Spider-Man Franchise that will launch thousands of flaming wars, bring forth the Superhero franchise and Comic Book Movies into a glorious Silver Age. Next Time we dive into Spider-Man (2002). [part three coming May 2/3rd]


What do you guys think of the original Amazing Spider-Man? Which Amazing Do you think fit Spider-Man better? Also what did you guys think of James Camron’s take on the Spidey? Did he do a good job or did he squash our hero like a bug?
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Parker2017
Parker2017 - 2/8/2013, 5:30 PM
Well since is asking to compare witch, I say TASM 2012 seems more entertaining. However I think the stunts are better in 77 TASM. I See a lto of apects of Cameron's work in both franchsies and It could work if they fixed somed things around.
Parker2017
Parker2017 - 2/9/2013, 9:38 AM
Great info! So That's Cameron's version had some weird stuff in it. All around it's pretty interesting.
Parker2017
Parker2017 - 2/9/2013, 10:43 AM
oh and here is scott shea as Spider-man:
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