Superhero movies can be divisive due to having an established fan base from the comics and corporate owners. In this case, corporate got in the way of The Social Network director. David Fincher revealed that his 1999 pitch for a Spider-Man movie got rejected as he wanted to focus on Peter Parker and omit an origin story. The job went to Sam Raimi, who would go off to make a trilogy with Tobey Maguire as the titular character.
David Fincher Opens Up About His Spider-Man Movie That Focused on Peter Parker and Not an Origin Story
In an interview with The Guardian, the filmmaker reflected on that rejected pitch. He said that Sony “wasn’t f—ing interested,” which he found understandable. He understood how meaningful that origin was, but he found it “dumb.” It did not fit his vision to do something new with the character.
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.”
David Fincher to The Guardian
Not being able to do Spider-Man did not stop David Fincher from rising in his career. At the time, he had released Se7en, which was nominated for an Oscar. Fight Club was released in 1999, but while it was poorly received at the time, it found its audience. Now, the filmmaker has gained traction with successes like The Social Network, Gone Girl, and Love, Death & Robots.
Not having an origin story of Spider-Man being rejected by Sony may seem odd now. Fast forward to 2016, Captain America: Civil War introduced the MCU’s Spider-Man with Tom Holland as the character. No origin was told, even when he got his first standalone movie in 2017’s Homecoming.
The Oscar-nominated director will have his latest movie on Netflix with The Killer on November 10. Starting today, it does have a limited theatrical run.
