Spider-Man 3, A Lesson in Generational Gap and Executive Meddling (Part 1 of 2)

You are tearing me apart, Sam Raimi!

When Spider-Man and X-Men were originally released in theaters, the last superhero that was made was Batman & Robin, one of the worst films in movie-making history. After Batman & Robin, it was deemed that superhero movies were too silly or unrealistic to be profitable, taken seriously, or made for any excuse that could be found. X-Men was highly successful and was well-received by the critics; it literally opened the path for a whole new batch of superhero movies. While some superhero movies were notoriously bad, like Daredevil and The Punisher, other movies like Blade, Spider-Man, and Batman Begins were made that took the superhero genre seriously and encouraged audiences that were not familiar with comic books to take them seriously as well.

Up to this point, most people's exposure to superheroes were the Superman movies and TV series, the Adam West Batman show, the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman show, The Incredible Hulk show, and the 90s Batman movies. Seeing so many superheroes being taken seriously confused Gen-Xers who were used to the idea of comic books being silly and a thing of the past. The growing so-called "Generation-Y," or "MTV Generation," or Nintendo Generation," however, demanded more serious superheroes and hated the idea of comics being campy like the Adam West Batman or the Superfriends. Because of this generational gap in the view of how superheroes should be portrayed, it was inevitable that some directors and/or writers would eventually conflict with each other (sometimes on set!) over the direction of a particular movie or character. Thus is the story of Spider-Man 3.

After Spider-Man, expectations were incredibly high for Spider-Man 2 or The Amazing Spider-Man, its original working title, not just from a profitable standpoint, but a critical one as well. Spider-Man was the best reviewed superhero film since Tim Burton's Batman and people expected the sequel to be as good, if not better. Director Sam Raimi and screenplay writer Alvin Sargent delivered in spades and gave us (at the time) the greatest superhero movie of all time. Making even more money and having even better reviews than the first movie, it was fairly obvious this team would return for Spider-Man 3. By this point, fans had seen enough of the classic Spidey villains and wanted to see a fan favorite, Venom. Sam Raimi hated the character, despite never having read a single comic about the character.

Raimi's original plan was to make a film about the Sandman and Harry Osborn taking over as the Green Goblin. Sony Pictures knew how marketable Venom was and pushed for Venom to be the sole villain and to scrap the idea of using the Sandman. Alvin Sargent was a devout Spider-Man fan and eventually convinced Raimi to include Venom, or at least the origin of the Venom symbiote. In Sargent's original screenplay, Sandman would be the main villain with Spider-Man donning the black symbiote suit and Green Goblin II playing a more minor role as somewhat of a recurring villain that constantly tried to ruin Peter Parker's life, very similar to his original role in the comics. In the end of the movie after the defeat of the Sandman, the symbiote would leave Parker and transfer to Eddie Brock, an ex-reporter from the Daily Bugle whom Parker had helped get fired. This would set up the events to Spider-Man 4 where Venom would be the lead villain and Green Goblin II would either meet his end or turn a new leaf. Fans of the Spider-Man comic liked this idea, especially with the concept to re-imagine the Sandman as a more tragic figure and letting Venom get his OWN movie to fully develop his complex character.

Sony and Sam Raimi however, hated this idea. Raimi, Tobey Maguire, and Kirsten Dunst were not committed to a 4th Spider-Man movie and as such, wanted Venom in the 3rd movie just in case the 4th movie either never happened or to avoid cast replacements in an ongoing storyline. Sargent was forced to re-write his script to include Sony's and fans' demands for Venom and Raimi's demands for the Sandman and Green Goblin II. In the end, Sargent actually quit because he deemed it impossible to write a coherent script with 3 main villains and would only stay on if he could cut down the number of villains to 2. Sony and Raimi relented and eventually the writing job was given to Sam Raimi himself and his brother. One of my biggest pet peeves is writer/directors because they can essentially change the script whenever they feel like it and make fans' expectations either incredibly fulfilled or hopelessly dashed. By the time the Raimis had finished their edited screenplay, Green Goblin II was renamed the New Goblin, Sandman became Uncle Ben's REAL killer, and Venom's appearance in the movie would be less than 20 minutes. The shit really wouldn't the fan until the 1st trailer for Spider-Man 3 was released.

To Be Continued in Part 2