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A New Beginning
Welcome to my new home. I'd like to thank Coming Attractions, Patrick Sauriol and Roc Carson for giving me a chance to write about movies. I'm really excited about starting new and joining a new team at TNMC, which in my opinion is on the verge of becoming one of the best movie news sites in the world. I hope all of my readers will enjoy my new column. It's going to be very different from my old one. How? Stick around, and believe me you haven't seen nothing yet.
Spider-Man Script Review
To begin this new chapter in my journalistic life, I decided to review one of the hottest projects in Hollywood right now: Spider-Man. Stax had the pleasure of reviewing an April 2000 draft written by David Koepp. That script has now been re-written by Scott Rosenberg and Sam Raimi is about to direct it. The script I'm reviewing today is David Koepp's adaptation of James Cameron infamous Spider-Man scriptment. The script is dated of November 5, 1999 and is 122 pages long.
Somewhere on top of a New-York skyscarper, we meet Spider-Man. He asks us the pivotal question: 'Who Am I?' The cover of Time magazine has our favorite webslinger on the cover with the headline: 'The Spider-Man: Hero or Vigilante'. Spider-Man begins telling us his story of how he became a masked superhero.
Peter Parker is a geeky High-School senior who's being raised by his uncle Ben and aunt May. Ben is looking for a job after working 34 years in a foundry. Peter's object of affection is his neighbor Mary Jane, a rebellious beautiful young woman. During a biology class field trip to a DNA research center, Peter finally speaks to Mary Jane and takes a few photos of her. Suddenly from the ceiling comes down a spider that bites puny Peter on the hand.
The spider bite has bizarre consequences on Peter's metabolism. He wakes up surrounded by sticky white silky substances coming out of his wrists. His body has changed into that of a bodybuilder. He doesn't need to wear his glasses anymore. On his way to talk to Mary Jane, he almost gets run over by a truck. Dodging the huge vehicle, he lands on top of a building. He discovers he can stick to walls and jump from building to building. While fighting Mary Jane's boyfriend he discovers his 'spider-sense', ducking punches before they're even thrown. After getting the 'with great power comes great responsibility' speech from Uncle Ben, Peter decides to become SPIDER-MAN with hopes of winning a $3000 wrestling challenge.
Enter Max Dillon, a rich man with a hidden agenda. His henchman is Boyd aka The Sandman. We learn Dillon's secret identity when he almost kills his sexy escort, Cordelia, with a simple ELECTRIC kiss. He's rich, crazy and ELECTRO!
Spider-Man wins the $3000 wrestling challenge. Coming out of the promoter's office he doesn't stop a thief. Minutes later, Peter learns his uncle was shot to death by a carjacker outside the wrestling arena. The carjacker turns out to be the thief Spider-Man didnt stop. Having failed to stop the man who killed his uncle, Spider-Man decides to become a crime fighter.
It's one year later and Spider-Man has become a New-York institution. Saving pizza delivery guy, women and children from fire, etc. Spider-Man has become a controversial figure in NYC. Hero or villain? Peter Parker is now attending Empire University and working part-time for The Daily Bugle. He's got a small apartment with no furniture. So does Mary Jane, whose dream of becoming an actress is dying, and she survives by being a waitress.
While covering a financial situation at the NY Stock Exchange, Spider-Man meets Max Dillon. Dillon offers Spidey to be his guidance counselor or in other terms his father. Spidey refuses and promise he'll comeback to face Electro and Sandman. On his way back, he saves M.J. from thugs and they kiss passionately.
Dillon becomes an investor in The Daily Bugle and turns Spider-Man into Public Enemy #1. Spider-Man is the most hated man in New York. Dillon calls him "...a joke. You're Dan Quayle. Joey Buttafuco. You're Leno material."
Mary Jane comes to live with Peter when she runs out of money. There she learns of Peter's secret identity. Jameson gives Dillon Parker's home address. Dillon discovers photos of Spider-Man and M.J. He kidnaps M.J.
The final showdown takes place on top of the World-Trade Center's twin towers. Dillon kills Sandman by mistake and electrocutes M-J. Spider-Man finally throws him off the tower and before dying he uses Dillon's last electricty to ressucitate M.J. The movie ends on M.J. confessing her love for Peter and that she knows about his secret identity. Spidey ends the movie telling us: "With great power comes great responsibility. This is my gift. It is my curse. Who Am I? Baby, I'm Spider-Man."
The script is fun and sharp. It doesn't slow down for a minute. It is an interesting take on Spider-Man but it's not memorable. I don't think it would have ended-up being a good movie. The movie was short on action scenes and Spidey's trademark one-liners. Hopefully David Koepp and now Scott Rosenberg have been able to add both action and laughs to the newer drafts of Spider-Man. Let's take a look at the main characters of this script:
Peter Parker/Spider-Man: He's well written in the beginning but lacks depth once Uncle Ben dies. While Spider-Man is not really funny and has a few cheesy one-liners.
Mary Jane: Sexy and complicated at the beginning she seems confused in the middle of the story. Koepp tried to give her a hard-knock life backstory, which made no sense. She's overused in this one. I hope she doesn't become Gwen Stacy and have the Green-Goblin kidnap her in the current Koepp/Rosenberg's drafts.
Aunt May: She's almost non-existant in this script. We see her on-screen for less then 15 minutes.
Uncle Ben: The only character who's right on the money in this script. He's the way I imagined him since I've read the early Spider-Man comic-books.
The Villains: Sandman is lost in the shuffle. He reminded me of Sabretooth in X-Men: The Movie. While Electro was too over-the-top for his own good. Each villainous characters had no depth at all.
Finally, this script is attention grabbing and fun to read. I'm glad they dropped it and decided to go elsewhere with the storyline. I hope Sam Raimi has found a better, funnier and more fascinating Spider-Man story to tell.
Stay tuned...
That's all folks...
Jean-François Allaire (aka DeadPool)
Questions, comments, praise etc. Email me at deadpool@tnmc.org
Jean-François Allaire is TNMC's first columnist. At only 24 years old he has become a respected entertainment journalist, with his columns appearing in Corona's Coming Attractions and Scr(i)pt magazine. He also writes a monthly column in Screenwriters Monthly entitled 'The Last Word.' Hailing from Montreal this young writer is determined to dig up all the details on the movies before they hit your local theater. If you're part of a movie production then you really need to be talking to him.
