A little over a year ago, we debuted an article here on SuperHeroHype titled 9 Superhero Movies That Almost Happened, and since then the piece has gone on to become one of our most popular features. Even since before I finished working on the first one, I knew there were plenty of other abandoned super projects that it would be possible to keep the trend going should everyone be interested in reading about them, and apparently you are. With that, here’s another collection of superhero movies that almost made it to the big screen, except this one goes to eleven.
#1 CANNON FILMS’ SPIDER-MAN
For some reason, when the pair bought the rights to Spider-Man, they weren’t even sure who Spider-Man was, and as a result a superhero free version of the character was envisioned more in line with the Universal monsters.
“Golan and Globus didn’t really know what Spider-Man was,” Joseph Zito, the second director brought onto the project, told the LA Times back in 2002. “They thought it was like the Wolfman.”
The script was written by “The Outer Limits” creator Leslie Stevens and saw Peter Parker turn into an eight-armed tarantula monster who did battle against a barrage of other mutants being kept in a government laboratory. With that kind of crazy story as the basis for your Spider-Man film, you need someone to step behind the camera to enhance the wackiness and that’s why Cannon Films hired The Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper.
As you can imagine, this script did not make Spider-Man creator Stan Lee very happy, who convinced them to have a new script written by Ted Newsom and John Brancato which featured your more traditional Peter Parker going up against Doctor Octopus. Hooper soon left the project and was replaced by Zito, who wanted to cast Bob Hoskins in the role of Doc Ock while Golan and Globus had their eyes set on Tom Cruise as Spider-Man. All told, Bloomberg Business Week reported in 2002 that the group spent over $10 million in developing scripts for the film, an unheard of amount at the time. Though fans can be thankful this bastardization was never actually made, it did begin the legal woes surrounding the character that would follow him for decades.
Head over to Page 2 to read about what unlikely hero the creators of The Matrix almost made… twice!
#2 THE WACHOWSKIS’ PLASTIC MAN
This one’s a two-pher for you as it almost happened, but ultimately didn’t, twice! Before they made a giant splash in the entertainment world with their 1999 film The Matrix, The Wachowskis wrote a script for the unlikeliest of heroes for Warner Bros. – Plastic Man. Some changes were made to the character for the script, which was written back in 1995. Firstly the character went by the name Daniel O’Brien instead of Patrick O’Brien and instead of being a “con man gone good,” the character is a former eco-terrorist who has just gotten out of prison at the start of the script, with a running “No litterbugs gag” ever present in the script. In a report on the original draft, IGN called the plot for the script “convoluted and kid-friendly.”
“It’s probably the closest script to a comedy we’ll write,” Larry said in an interview back in 1996. “We thought it could be kind of cool. The basic idea we came up with was that he would be an environmentalist, almost like an Earth First-er type guy.”
He went on to describe a scene from the film saying: “The funny scene we thought of that was kind of the start of it all was like he goes to the bathroom after he becomes Plastic Man and his urine is no longer bio-degradable so he like wants to kill himself.”
It’s reported that TV director Bryan Spicer signed on to helm the project and eventually re-wrote it to the point that it was no longer what the Wachowskis originally put down. The bad news is this lead to Plastic Man never getting made, but the good news is that it introduced them to Joel Silver who would produce all three of The Matrix films with them.
Fast forward to 2008 when a new rumor popped up suggesting the Wachowskis had taken the script out of a drawer and wanted to make it their next directorial effort, featuring frequent collaborator Keanu Reeves in the title role. Reeves shot down the rumor rather quickly, and once again it never materialized.
Find out on page 3 which winged DC hero almost became an Indiana Jones clone!
#3 HAWKMAN
Lets step back in time to the far gone year of 2011. Producer Adrian Askarieh (Hitman) was teaming up with Gregory Noveck (RED, Justice League: The New Frontier) and Will Hackner to bring the DC hero Hawkman to life on the big screen. Though the adaptation saw almost no further traction, a logline was release for the story and read as follows:
“Part INDIANA JONES/DA VINCI CODE, part GHOST tentpole about the fictional superhero that appears in D.C. Comic books. He used archaic weaponry and large, artificial wings attached to a harness made of the Nth metal that allows flight. Most incarnations of Hawkman work closely with a partner/romantic interest named Hawkgirl or Hawkwoman in his fight against supervillains. Based on the DC comic.”
Bleeding Cool later reported that WB had no interest in a mystical or alien version of the character, meaning the man under the mask would no doubt be Carter Hall, though it never got past the development stage.
What Oscar winner almost adapted Neil Gaiman’s beloved series? Find out on page 4!
