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 A Critical Report on the movie Spiderman
John Jonah Jameson :

(also known as J.J.J., Jolly Jonah Jameson, Jigsaw Jameson or J.J.) is

a fictional supporting character featured in various Marvel Comics,
most prominently the Spider-Man title. Created by writer Stan Lee
and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man
#1 (March 1963).
Jameson is usually the publisher or editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle,
a fictional New York newspaper and now serves as the mayor of New
York City. Recognizable by his mustache, flattop haircut and ever-
present cigar, he carries out a smear campaign against Spider-Man
that has turned much of the city against the hero. He unknowingly
employs Spider-Man’s alter ego Peter Parker as a photojournalist.
Portrayals of Jameson have varied throughout the years. Sometimes
he is shown as a foolishly stubborn and pompous skinflint who micro-
manages his employees and resents Spider-Man out of jealousy. Other
writers have portrayed him more humanly, as a humorously obnox-
ious yet caring boss who nevertheless has shown great bravery and in-
tegrity in the face of the assorted villains with which the Bugle comes
into contact, and whose campaign against Spider-Man comes more
from fear of youngsters following his example. In either case, he has
remained an important part of the Spider-Man mythos.
Jameson is also the father of John Jameson, the Marvel Universe sup-
porting character who, in addition to his job as a famous astronaut,
has at turns become Man-Wolf and Star-God, and married She-Hulk.
Jameson was raised by his stepfather, his biological father’s brother.
This is who he learned to love cigars from. His biological father J. Jo-
nah Jameson Sr. left the country for unknown reasons.
As a result of the wedding of his father and May Parker, he and Peter
Parker are now in-laws.


 Directed by Sam Raimi

Writing credits
(WGA)
Stan Lee (Marvel comic book) and
Steve Ditko (Marvel comic book)
David Koepp (screenplay)

Cast (in credits order) verified as complete

Tobey Maguire
Spider-Man / Peter Parker

Kirsten Dunst
Mary Jane Watson


A Critical Report on the movie Spiderman

Willem Dafoe
Green Goblin / Norman Osborn

James Franco
Harry Osborn

Cliff Robertson
Ben Parker

Rosemary Harris
May Parker

J.K. Simmons
J. Jonah Jameson

Joe Manganiello
Flash Thompson


 Additional Details
Also Known As:
Spider-Man: The Motion Picture (USA) (working title)
Spiderman (USA) (alternative spelling)
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for stylized violence and action.
Parents Guide: View content advisory for parents
Runtime: 121 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix: DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS (8 channels)
Certification:
USA:PG-13 (certificate #37531) | India:U | Italy:T | Malaysia:U | Brazil:Livre | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Aus-
tria:10 | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Chile:TE |
Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Iceland:10 (original rating) | Iceland:LH (video rating) |
Ireland:12 | Mexico:A | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Peru:PT | Philippines:G | Portugal:M/12 |
Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (can-
ton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of the Grisons) | Taiwan:PG-12 | UK:12A (original rating) | UK:12 (video
rating) (2002)
Filming Locations:
4th Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA more
Company:
Columbia Pictures Corporation more

________________________________________

Fun Stuff
Trivia:
A camera system called the Spydercam was developed to express more of Spider-Man’s world and point of view.
It was able to drop 50 stories (over 600 ft) and with shot lengths of just over 2400 feet or 3200 feet (for shooting in
New York City, or Los Angeles), and could shoot at six frames/second to convey a sense of speed. The Spydercam
was only used in this film for the final sequence, but was brought into more use for the sequels. more
Goofs:
Continuity: After Peter punches Flash in the school hallway, a boy with glasses stands at the right behind a stunned
Mary Jane and he looks at Peter in shock. When Harry is seen and says, “Peter, that was amazing”, the same boy
is now standing to her left and smiling, applauding Peter’s actions. As Peter runs down the hall, the boy’s position
changes from Mary Jane’s left to her right again. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
Peter Parker: [voiceover] Who am I? You sure you want to know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart.
If somebody said it was a happy little tale... if somebody told you I was just your average ordinary guy, not a care
in the world... somebody lied.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Mosaic (2007) (V) more
Soundtrack:
Jimmy Shaker Day


 A Critical Report on the movie Spiderman
Filming of the Movie
Spider-Man 3 has the second largest budget of all time, $258 million. You can get a whole lot of visual effects
with that kind of money. It is reported that $58 million was spent on visual effects in Spider-Man 2 so it is
probably even more this time around.
There are 10 companies credited for various parts of visual effects work on SM3, they are: Tweak Films, SPI,
Furious FX, Pixel Liberation Front, GKR, New Deal Studios, Evil Eyes Pictures, Digital Dream, CafeFX, and
Halon. Over a thousand people worked on the visual effects, sound, and art.
Stunts and Live Action Filming
A lot of the live action scenes were shot on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland. The mayor even re-paved some roads for
smoothness that was needed for filming. Cleveland Convention Center was used as a auto shop for working on over
60 cars in the movie and also housed wardrobe, offices, and the art department.Ground up corn was used for Sandman
shots such as the Armored Car scene. Some stunts required days of rigging work and hundreds of thousands of dollars
just to pull them off.Most of the movies action scenes and Spider-Man scenes were done by taking some live action
shots and then blending those shots with CG characters and effects. All visual effects shots were pre-visualized with
drawings and those pre-vis drawings were carefully followed.

had to scan the character into the computer, take motion capture tests to get down facial expressions, and take images
of the way there skin reacts to light. They did all of this by putting the actors into the costumes and getting images of
thousands of different lighting situations with a special light rig. Then the CGI characters were then melded with the
real life shots or made by comparing the shots with CG lighting. For creating the characters heads, they would take
360-degree HDR images of the environment and then use a software algorithm to blend together images to get the
right look. Another thing they wanted to do was make the muscles and the way the CG characters move as realistic as
possible. So special tools and proprietary scripts were written specifically for Spider-Man 3 that shows muscle detail
like no other movie has done before.
Whenever live shots were done with wires, the crew followed
pre-vis drawings and used a laptop to composite effects so
they could see if they had takes that would work. Director Sam
Raimi said “ Anything that’s dangerous or that wouldn’t look
physically sound we go with the CG character.”

Hardware and Software Info

* Was shot with Panaflex Cameras by Panavision in 35mm

format
* Hardware used for creating visual effects: Mostly Linux
machines and some Windows
* Stereoscopic lighting done with Maya, Renderman, Shake,
and Inferno
* Most of the rendering was done with Maya and Render-
man
* Scott Stodyk (main editor) used a mini skyscraper section
at 1/16th of scale instead of using CGI so that damage to the
building would be more realistic and to save money.
* Visual effects budget was most likely over $60 million


 Production Planning Stages
# Before Willem Dafoe received the role of the Green Goblin, Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich and Robert De Niro
were offered the role. Malkovich and Dafoe starred together in Shadow of the Vampire (2000), which was produced
by Nicolas Cage.

# James Franco auditioned to play Peter Parker, but was cast as Harry Osborn instead.

# The Green Goblin was chosen as the film’s main villain since Sam Raimi felt the father-son theme (Norman and
Harry Osborn and Peter Parker) would make the film deeper.

# In addition to both Peter Parker and Norman Osborn wearing their enemy’s costume colors during the Thanksgiving
dinner scene, Harry Osborn is seen wearing all of the colors. He’s wearing a green shirt, red tie and blue coat.

# Leonardo DiCaprio was considered for the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man.

# Sam Raimi was not Sony’s first choice as director. Others considered were Tony Scott, Jan de Bont, James Cameron,
Roland Emmerich, Ang Lee and David Fincher.

# Alicia Witt was considered for the role of Mary-Jane Watson.

# Mena Suvari auditioned for the role of Mary Jane Watson.

# Eliza Dushku had auditioned for the role of Mary Jane Watson. In Tobey Maguire’s screen test (as seen on the
DVD), the actress playing Mary Jane Watson was Eliza Dushku.

# Elisha Cuthbert auditioned for the role of Mary-Jane Watson.

# Pre-production planning for Spider-Man actually began in 1986 by Cannon Films. Later, Cannon sold the produc-
tion rights to Carolco Pictures. Carolco would later sell the production rights to Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Sony
and Marvel produced the Spider-Man film we see today, released through Sony’s Columbia Pictures division.

# James Cameron wrote a treatment for this film over the years as the rights to the character jumped between compa-
nies. Nearly all of his ideas were scrapped except for the biological web shooters.

# The writers Alvin Sargent & Scott Rosenberg contribute to the last uncredited re-write on the shooting script.

# In preparation for his role, Tobey Maguire trained for a short while before the screen test. After he got the role, he
went on a strict exercise regime and a specific diet for five months.

# The scene at Columbia University was filmed on an unseasonably warm spring day. However, the costume depart-
ment had provided the high school extras with cold-weather clothing. The real Columbia University students can be
seen in the background wearing shorts and t-shirts by contrast.

# A welder building sets for the movie was killed on 6 March 2001 when a crane toppled onto a construction basket in
which he was riding and struck him in the head.

# Zach Hudson, the stunt double for Tobey Maguire, fractured his leg after a stunt went wrong and he slammed in to a
brick wall.

# Several Spider-Man costumes were created at a cost of up to $100,000 each. Four were stolen from the set in early
April of 2001 and Columbia Pictures posted a $25,000 reward for their return. The costumes were not returned.

# The movie cost over $100 million to produce, and another $30 million to promote.

 A Critical Report on the movie Spiderman
# The studio expressed an interest in Leonardo DiCaprio and Freddie Prinze Jr playing the part of Spider-Man. Scott
Speedman, Jay Rodan and James Franco all actually tested for the part.

# When Sam Raimi first mooted the idea that he wanted to cast Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, the studio was ini-
tially very reluctant. That was until they saw Maguire’s test and they saw that the actor had clearly bulked up for the
role.

# Tobey Maguire had to have his Spider-Man outfit slightly remodeled as the original design had not made any al-
lowances for when the actor needed a bathroom break. A vent was added to enable him to perform that function with-
out having to take the entire costume off.

# The shoot was fast-tracked due to an impending actors/ directors/ writers strike that was anticipated for summer
2001. The strike never actually took place.

# One of the chief difficulties that Tobey Maguire experienced in the now-famous upside-down kissing scene was
that his sinuses kept filling up with water as it was performed in driving rain.

# In the final battle between Spider-Man and the Goblin, the CGI artists had to change the color of the blood pouring
from Spider-Man’s mouth to a clear liquid, indicating spit. This was to ensure a PG rating.

# Although Spider-Man is an iconic figure for New York, the majority of the film was actually made in Los Angeles.
Only two weeks’ worth of location filming was done in the Big Apple.

# James Franco’s hair was dyed brown to give him some resemblance to Willem Dafoe, his screen father. This deci-
sion was only made after filming had begun. Indeed, in the scene where Harry visits Aunt May in hospital, you can
see that Franco’s hair is his usual black.

# Some of the spiders used in the film were imported from New Zealand.

# One of the reasons why Sam Raimi was a popular choice with Sony for the director’s gig was because he is an avid
comic book collector in his private life, with a collection of over 25,000.

# Some of the directors who had been attached to the project over the years include Tobe Hooper, Joseph Zito and
Stephen Herek. A longtime contender to direct was Albert Pyun when the film rights were held by Cannon, as he had
already made a superhero adaptation with “Captain America” (1990).

# By signing on for two sequels, Tobey Maguire secured himself a paycheck of $26 million.

# The interior of the visit to Columbia University was actually filmed in the main rotunda of the Natural History Mu-
seum in Los Angeles. The large electron microscope in the center of the set was actually made of plywood, plaster
and fiberglass, concealing three 16-foot bronze centerpieces.

# The construction crew for the art department spent almost a year building the 100 sets needed for the film.

# Cliff Robertson plays Uncle Ben Parker. In reality, Robertson’s middle name is Parker too.

# Although Uncle Ben claims to be 68 in the film, Cliff Robertson was 75 at the time of filming. Make-up artists still
made him look a little older.

# The first scene filmed was when Peter returns from his field-trip, feverish after being bitten by the spider.

# To acquire his bumped-up physique, Tobey Maguire went through a strict five-month regimen of exercise, weight
training and martial arts six times a week, as well as eating a high protein meal four to six times a day.
Spider-Man’s webbing in the film is made out of foam materials and fishing line. It was also enhanced with CGI.

# In order to come up with the look of the high school kids, the costume department sent disposable cameras to
schoolteachers in New York City and had them distribute them among their students to take pictures of each other.

# Color costume considerations meant that Spider-Man was shot in front of a green screen, while the Green Goblin
was shot in front of a blue one.

# The genetically modified spider that bit Peter Parker was not a black widow spider but a Steatoda spider, which was
chosen by Steven R. Kutcher and painted red and blue by Jens Schnabel while the spider was anesthetized.

# The sketches Peter Parker does of his costume were actually done by Phil Jimenez, an artist on “Wonder Woman”
comics.

# The original trailer for the movie depicted a theft of a bank, with the robbers making a getaway in a helicopter.
A close-up of the helicopter was shown, until the helicopter stopped, apparently caught in mid-air. As the camera
zoomed out, it was shown that the helicopter was caught in a spider web, suspended between the two towers of the
World Trade Center. After the attacks on the towers 11 September 2001, however, the trailer was changed.

# The World Trade Center Towers can be seen in the background of some scenes and once in the reflection of Spider-
Man’s eye. In addition, during the ending scene where he is swinging around the American trade building, you can
see the towers in the far background slightly blurred. The makers of the film chose not to remove them digitally.

# The owners of the billboards that surround Times Square attempted to sue Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Mar-
vel Enterprises, and the other companies involved with the production of Spider-Man for “digitally superimposing
advertisements for other companies over their billboard space in the film.” The suit was thrown out by a federal judge
in New York.

# Bleu’s song “Somebody Else” was originally written to be the theme for a different superhero, Superman for the
TV series “Smallville” (2001).

# In the comics, Peter Parker designed and made Spider-Man’s synthetic spider web and the mechanical wrist guns
that fire it. In the movie he shoots the web from his own body. Director Sam Raimi answered the protests of comic
book fans saying that it was more credible to have Peter shoot web this way than for a high school boy to be able to
produce a wonder adhesive in his spare time that 3M could not make.

# Director Trademark: [Sam Raimi] The 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, also known as The Classic, appears in the movie
as Uncle Ben’s car.

# Tobey Maguire said he had never read a Spider-Man comic book but took the role because he liked the script.

# Willem Dafoe was never an intended choice to play the Green Goblin. After the script fell into his possession, he
began lobbying for the role and met with Sam Raimi. Sometime later, while filming a movie in Spain, Dafoe was ap-
proached and shot some test footage inside the hotel room he was staying. It led to his being cast. Once he received
the role, Dafoe asked that he be allowed to perform his own stunts so that the character and movements would feel
authentic, or else the audience would notice the difference. He performed about 95% of his own stunts, and unlike
many of the stunt crew, learned how to handle the Goblin Glider after just 15 minutes. Having such a great time
during filming, he offered to return for the sequel and asked if they could write him in somewhere. Sam Raimi took
him up on the offer and both of them set aside a specific day of filming on Spider-Man 2 for Dafoe to shoot Norman
Osborn’s cameo sequence.

# During the fight between the Green Goblin and Spider-Man near the end of the movie, Willem Dafoe accidentally
clipped Tobey Maguire on the chin with one blow.

# According to visual effects supervisor John Dykstra, animating Spider-Man was the most sophisticated task he had
accomplished at that time.

 A Critical Report on the movie Spiderman
Sam Raimi wanted to convey the essence of being Spider-Man (“the transition that occurs, between him being a
young man going through puberty and being a superhero”); but the main difficulty was that as the character was
masked, there was no context of eyes/mouth and it immediately lost a lot of characterization; thus the animators had to
insert a lot of body language into his movements so that there would be some emotional content.

# Director Trademark: [Sam Raimi] Shaky-cam shot (created by Raimi) on the Green Goblin.

# Director Trademark: [Sam Raimi] Dual personalities of one person looking in a mirror, also exhibited in Evil Dead
II (1987), directed by Sam Raimi.

# Ivan Raimi did some uncredited script doctoring on this film.

# Sam Raimi hoped to use more traditional VFX (stuntwork and digital mattes) for the film, but John Dykstra ex-
plained to him that Spider-Man’s flexibility and agility meant that such stunts would be near-impossible to physically
enact and so Raimi decided to use computer-generated imagery. However, Raimi did not want it to be complete ani-
mation, so none of the VFX shots were 100% computer generated.

# When used in the trailer, the shot of Peter doing a long back-flip onto a car hood was digitally altered to put him in
his Spider-Man outfit instead of his wrestling outfit.

# Director Trademark: [Sam Raimi] Cameo appearances by longtime friend Bruce Campbell and by brother Ted
Raimi.

# Director Trademark: [Sam Raimi] [chainsaw] The wrestler Peter fights is named Bonesaw.

# Director Trademark: [Sam Raimi] The Whip-Pan is used in the scene where Norman Osborn walks into Peter Park-
er’s bedroom.

# Cameo: [Stan Lee] The creator of Spider-Man appears in the scene where the Green Goblin attacks the balcony at
the World Unity Festival.

# Cameo: [Nicholas Hammond] The former actor from (“The Amazing Spider-Man” (1978)) is also at the World
Unity Festival.

# Cameo: [Lucy Lawless] as a punk girl (director Sam Raimi was an executive producer of “Xena: Warrior Princess”
(1995)).

# The film contains multiple references to future Spider-Man villains: Doctor Curtis Connors (Lizard), Eddie Brock
(Venom), Harry Osborn (Green Goblin No. 2), Mendel Stromm (Robot Master).

# In the film, Peter mentioned Dr. Curt Connors firing him. Connors appeared in Spider-Man 2 (2004).

# The sequence of Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) talking to his board members begins with the same shot (a steady
pull back along a table framed symmetrically) and dialogue “Costs are down, revenues are up, and our stock has never
been higher” as a scene in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), in which Sam Raimi was co-writer and 2nd unit director.
Both films also have a fast-talking newspaper chief.

# In the scene where The Green Goblin attempts to form an alliance with Spider-Man, the Goblin confuses the words
“fail” and “fall.” This is a direct reference to a similar scene between Tim Robbins and Charles Durning in The Hud-
sucker Proxy (1994).

# A sign in front of Peter Parker and Harry Osborne’s apartment building: Webstring Platform.

# During the World Unity parade, a billboard for Terminix can be seen, one of many insect-related inside jokes.
10
# Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom, appears in a non-speaking cameo as a board member of Oscorp, Norman
Osborn’s company.

# When Spider-Man fights with his uncle’s killer, he smashes a couple of glass panes with his head. In Sam Raimi’s
Darkman (1990), his first superhero film, the thugs attack Liam Neeson the same way in his lab. At the end of the film,
Spider-Man walks away from his beloved, saying, “I’m Spider-Man.” This is also identical to the ending sequence of
“Darkman.”

# When Peter Parker is testing out his webbing for the first time, he says several classic DC Comics (archrival of Mar-
vel Comics) catchphrases, most notably “Up, up and away, Web!” (Superman (1978)) and “Shazam!” (DC’s Captain
Marvel, aka “Shazam!” (1974)). Tobey Maguire ad-libbed these lines, which were not in the original script.

# When Peter Parker tests out his webbing for the first time, among the notable catch phrases he says, he also uses the
same gesture (middle and third fingers folded into the palm, the rest extended outward) he typically uses in the comic
books to fire his mechanical webbing wrist guns.

# During the ending credits, the theme of the original “Spider-Man” (1967) animated series is played.

# During the World Unity Fair fight scene, in the background one of the signs on the buildings shows a police officer
and behind him read the words “Protecting, Serving, Blah Blah Blah.”

# One of Peter’s sketches for his costume is of Marvel Comics superhero Stingray.

# One of Peter’s sketches for possible costume ideas is nearly identical to the black-and-white suit Spider-Man wore
in the comics during the early-to-mid-1980s (which would eventually become the costume for Venom), except that the
spider insignia is red, not white. Peter’s note on this sketch: “Needs more color.”

# When Peter Parker browses through several newspapers looking for a used car, one of the ads shown is for an Alfa
Romeo convertible: that model was marketed in Italy under the name Spider.

# When Uncle Ben’s killer crashes the car into the gate after Spider-Man leaps off, the police car that pulls into frame
on the right side has a very obvious license plate with “1927” being the only markings. This 1927 is to honor John
Buscema, a legendary comic artist who was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 11, 1927. He sadly passed
away on January 10, 2002. Buscema was a great friend of Stan Lee’s and worked for both Marvel and DC Comics.

# David Koepp’s fourth screenplay to hold the opening weekend box office record. The others are Jurassic Park
(1993) (June 1993), Mission: Impossible (1996) (May 1996) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) (May 1997).

# Actor/stuntman Scott Leva was considered for the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man when the film project was first
proposed in the mid-1980s.

# Marion Ross was considered for the role of Aunt Mae.

# Among the page-two headlines advertised on the front page of the Daily Bugle: “Public Clamors for Pest Control”
and “New York Fears the Bug - 20 Victims to Date.”

# Mary Jane’s red hair in this movie is a wig; however, Kirsten Dunst liked the look so much, she dyed her hair for the
sequels.

# The camera that Peter Parker uses is a Canon New F-1 SLR, with the Canon logo blacked out. This camera was mar-
keted in 1981.

# The scene in which Peter Parker catches Mary Jane’s lunch on the tray involved no CGI. With the help of a sticky
substance to keep the tray planted on his hand, Tobey Maguire eventually (after many takes) performed the stunt ex
11
 A Critical Report on the movie Spiderman
exactly as seen.

# The jumping spider that Peter attempts to take a picture of is an Avondale Spider, the same type used in Arachnopho-
bia (1990).

# The smoke in the lab during Norman Osborn’s transformation scene was originally white but was then digitally
altered to green. Director Sam Raimi wanted to use real green smoke, but went with the CG effect when prop designers
could not create a colored smoke that was non-toxic.

# Scenes of New Yorkers throwing trash at the Green Goblin and Spider-Man perched alongside the American flag
were added after 11 September 2001 to reflect the city’s sense of unity and patriotism.

# The last few shots of the spider dream sequence were taken from the Lucio Fulci film E tu vivrai nel terrore - L’aldilà
(1981).

# At the time of its release, the movie passed the US$100 million mark faster than any other movie, in just three days.
That record has since been broken by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006), which made the mark in just
2 days. Several other movies have also reached this record, including Spider-Man 3 (2007).

# Doctor Octopus was in the early draft of the script to appear as the second bad guy. Later on in pre-production it was
decided that he be saved for the second movie.

# The Daily Bugle newspaper building is actually the Flatiron building, a famous Manhattan landmark that was built in
1902. In the comics, the Bugle’s building is on East 38th Street and Second Avenue.

# When Peter is making his way to the wrestling ring there is a wounded wrestler screaming in pain, his voice is over-
dubbed by Bruce Campbell. This technique was also used in Darkman (1990).

# The first Marvel movie to showcase the flipping pages Marvel logo.

# During the conversation outside the library, Uncle Ben quotes to Peter the famous words, “With great power comes
great responsibility.” This well-quoted line actually came from a 1962 published issue, so it debuted there 14 years be-
fore a short story by Isaac Asimov which later was made into the movie Bicentennial Man (1999), which some attribute
wrongly as the source of this phrase.

# Entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as having the Highest Box Office Gross in a Single Day, taking in
US$43.6 million on its second day of release.

# Bonesaw, the wrestler Spider-Man fights for money, is played by real life wrestler Macho Man Randy Savage. Early
in his career, Savage wrestled under the name The Spider.

# Sam Raimi wanted Bill Pope to be the film’s cinematographer, but Pope was busy working on The Matrix Reloaded
(2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003). Raimi’s second choice was Peter Deming, but he was working on Austin
Powers in Goldmember (2002).

# The balloons at the Unity Festival were made by Aerostar International, Inc., in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

# After the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001, Sony recalled teaser posters which showed a close-up of
Spiderman’s face with the New York skyline (including, prominently, the World Trade Center towers) reflected in his
eyes. Not all the posters were recovered, however, and the ones still at large are now highly prized collector’s items.

# When Jameson’s subordinates are trying to tell him about Spider-Man, one of them says, “Eddie’s been trying to get
a picture of him for weeks.” This is a reference to Eddie Brock, who in the comics is a reporter and ultimately becomes
the villain named Venom.
12
# The diner that Mary Jane Watson worked at is the same diner (at least the exterior) where Monica worked in the
early seasons of “Friends” (1994).

# At the beginning of the movie when we first see Mary Jane on the school bus, she is dressed in the Green Goblin’s
(from the comic book, anyways) colors. Her top is purple and her coat is green. This outfit is also the stereotypical
depiction of Gwen Stacy from the comics, who was killed by the Green Goblin in a battle not unlike the bridge scene
in the movie.

# The Thanksgiving scene when Aunt May puts the turkey in front of Norman is a reference to the Norman Rockwell
painting “Freedom From Want”.

# In the scene where Peter Parker is on his ceiling hiding from Mr. Osbourne, a green sweatshirt with a beaver insignia
can be seen on the ground. This is a sweatshirt from Sam Raimi’s childhood camp, Tamakwa.

# Both Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe incorporated a Yoga technique called Ashtanga into their training regimens
for this film. “Ashtanga” translates into English as “eight-legged.”

# The Moondance Diner where Mary Jane Watson works is the same one that Rent (2005) creator Jonathan Larson
(and actor and star of “Rent,” Jesse L. Martin) worked at prior to quitting to pursue a career writing musicals.

# Peter asks Mary Jane Watson “maybe we could have some lunch some evening.” This line originally appeared in
Sam Raimi’s film Crimewave (1985), 17 years earlier.

# Cameo: [Robert Kerman] [as the Tugboat Captain.]

# The film caused some controversy in England when the BBFC rated it 12, going on record to say it was the most
violent movie they had seen that was aimed at younger viewers. The distributor had requested a PG rating, but this
was denied due to the levels of “personal violence” and the prevalent revenge theme. Many parents complained about
the decision, saying how disappointed their children were at not being able to legally see the film (the 12 at this time
was a legal age limit). However, when the new 12A rating was introduced in August 2002, Spider-Man was re-re-
leased with this new advisory rating, along with a new marketing campaign stressing that children could now go and
see the film.

# This movie held the record for biggest opening day ever with $39.4 million. This record was broken by its sequel
Spider-Man 2 (2004), and is now currently held by Spider-Man 3 (2007) with $59.8 million, though it made the least
box office gross of the three.

# Chris Columbus was offered the director’s chair but opted to make Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
instead.

# When going through Peter’s photographs of Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson goes “Crap...crap...crap...” This is a ref-
erence to Batman (1989), another “first instalment” superhero film with music composed by Danny Elfman, where the
Joker did the same thing with Vicki Vale’s photos.

# At Norman Osborn’s funeral, a headstone can be seen that holds the name “Stacy.” This is a reference to Gwen
Stacy, Peter Parker’s first love interest in the comics and who makes an appearance in Spider-Man 3 (2007).

# The rights for Spider-Man were in limbo for years, switching between studios. In fact, in a 1987 issue of Variety
there was an advertisement proclaiming that Cannon studios would begin principal photography for the film on Nov.
14, 1988.

# Cingular Wireless, whose logo in very prominent within the movie and the movie’s promotional campaigns, was not
actually available in New York City at the time of the movie’s release.
Sam Raimi and John Dykstra worked hard to plan all the web-slinging sequences, which Raimi described as
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# “ballet in the sky.” The complexity of such sequences meant the film’s budget rose from an initially planned $70
million to around $100 million.

# When two studio executives were shown shots of the computer generated Spider-Man, they believed it was actually
Tobey Maguire performing the stunts.

# A camera system called the Spydercam was developed to express more of Spider-Man’s world and point of view. It
was able to drop 50 stories (over 600 ft) and with shot lengths of just over 2400 feet or 3200 feet (for shooting in New
York City, or Los Angeles), and could shoot at six frames/second to convey a sense of speed. The Spydercam was only
used in this film for the final sequence, but was brought into more use for the sequels.

# To create Spider-Man’s costume, Tobey Maguire was fitted for the skintight outfit, being covered with layers of sub-
stance to create the suit’s shape. It was designed as a single piece, except for the mask. The webbing that accented the
costume was cut by computer.

# The Green Goblin’s costume was originally designed to be more bulky and armoured, but Willem Dafoe, having
decided to film his own stunts, rejected it in favour of a more streamlined and athletic costume. The final outfit was
composed of 580 pieces and took Dafoe half an hour to put on.

# When Uncle Ben drops Peter off to go to the library, a bus can be seen driving by with a promotional advertisement
that reads, The Producers (1968), a ‘Mel Brooks (I)’ musical. Brooks later sued Sony Pictures Entertainment for un-
wanted advertisement in motion-picture space.

# When James Cameron was developing Spider-Man in the early 1990s, Charlie Sheen actively campaigned for the
role, apparently to Cameron’s disinterest. After Titanic (1997), Cameron said his only choice was ‘Leonardo Dicaprio’
before he eventually passed onto other projects.

# Edward Norton was offered the role of the Green Goblin but opted to Red Dragon (2002) instead.

# The film is based on a combination of both the Ultimate Spider-Man comic series and the original Amazing Spider-
Man series. For instance, this incarnation of Mary Jane Watson (the “girl next door” version) is from the Ultimates
series, while this version of the Green Goblin is from the original Amazing Spider-Man universe.

# When the project began in the late 1980s, the role of Mary Jane Watson was considered for many actresses, in-
cluding Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ally Sheedy, Jodie Foster, Natasha Richardson, Phoebe Cates, Tatum O’Neal, Bridget
Fonda, Lori Loughlin, Diane Lane, Sarah Jessica Parker, Brooke Shields, Kyra Sedgwick, Justine Bateman, Nicole
Kidman, Julia Roberts, Molly Ringwald, Jennifer Aniston, Uma Thurman, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Chris-
tina Applegate, Cameron Diaz, Alyssa Milano, Tori Spelling, Neve Campbell, Tiffani Thiessen, Alyson Hannigan and
Drew Barrymore. But when the project eventually went into pre-production, all of them were considered too old for
the part.

In 1988, director Albert Pyun was hired to direct a “Spider-Man” movie for Cannon Films. Scott Leva was hired to
play Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and filming was set to take place at De Laurentiis’ studio in Wilmington, North Caro-
lina. With a $6 million budget, the Brooklyn sets were built for “Spider-Man” on the Wilmington stages and Pyun
would also film a sequel to _Masters of the Universe (1987)_ during the same time. Pyun had originally planned to
film two weeks worth of scenes for “Spider-Man” before Leva’s nerdy Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider,
then Leva would undergo a supervised eight week workout regimen to build muscle mass while director Pyun would
film “Masters of the Universe Part 2”, and filming for “Spider-Man” would resume for the scenes after Peter gets his
spider powers. However, both projects were scrapped when Cannon Films lost money and eventually went out of
business.

In 1993, James Cameron was hired to rewrite an existing draft for “Spider-Man” for Carolco Pictures. The script was
going to feature Liz Allen as Peter Parker’s love interest instead of Mary Jane Watson, and the villain was Doctor Otto
Octavius/Doctor Octopus. Unlike the comics, Octavius was a professor who would be a mentor to college senior
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# Peter Parker, and Otto called himself Professor Octopus after his four mechanical arms become accidentally fused
to his body. During the accident that turns Octavius into Doc Ock, Otto is also bitten on the back of the neck by the
same radioactive spider that turns Peter into Spider-Man. To make the film more kid-friendly, the company had Doc
Ock constantly use the phrase “Okey! Dokey!” and Ock had an assistant named Weiner that later kills Peter’s Uncle
Ben Parker instead of a burglar that Spider-Man lets get away. Arnold Schwarzenegger was Cameron’s first choice for
Doctor Octopus and Edward Furlong was considered for Peter Parker, but Carolco ultimately never made a “Spider-
Man” film when it ultimately went out of business.

# James Cameron had a Spider-Man picture in mind early on in his career. In the early 1990s, Carolco Pictures hired
him to write and direct a Spider-Man motion picture. While he originally wrote Doctor Octopus as the lone villain
and had Arnold Schwarzenegger in mind for the role of Doc Ock, Cameron later wrote a new draft that featured Peter
Parker as a high school senior in love with Mary Jane Watson and Spider-Man would fight two villains, Electro and
Sandman. However, Electro was changed from electrical lineman Max Dillon to billionaire businessman Carlton
Strand and Sandman was changed from crook Flint Marko to Strand’s hired henchman, Boyd. Cameron had intended
to cast Michael Biehn as Peter Parker (This is foreshadowed in earlier Cameron movies featuring Michael Biehn when
his character gets bit on the hand in Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss. This is A reference to Peter Parker’s spider
bite.), but the director couldn’t make his Spider-Man movie when Carolco went bankrupt and soon after the movie
rights to Spider-Man went into limbo for several years.

# Willem Dafoe performed 90% of his own stunts.

# SPOILER: One of the scenes that Tobey Maguire performed for his screen test was the final one in which Peter
Parker rejects Mary Jane.

# SPOILER: The film’s climax is based on the infamous “The Amazing Spider-Man” # 121 comic, “The Night Gwen
Stacy Died.” In that comic, the Goblin captures Stacy and suspends her over a bridge, and Spider-Man attempts to
save her, but fails. In near-insane anger and retaliation he beats the Goblin to near-unconsciousness, and when he tries
to use his sled to impale the wall-crawler, it backfires and impales him instead. In the film, the main differences are
that Mary-Jane is the one held over a bridge, and she survives.

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Special effects

Pixel Magic recently completed over 70 visual effects shots for the SONY Picture / Columbia Pictures mega-block-
buster SPIDER-MAN. The film, directed by Sam Raimi (A SIMPLE PLAN) is based upon the popular comic by
Stan Lee. When nerdy high school student Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically manipulated spider, he uses his
new found special abilities to fight evil as the friendly neighborhood, Spider-Man. The visual effects for the picture
were supervised by John Dykstra (STUART LITTLE, BATMAN FOREVER).

The film features many shots where the action was either sped up or slowed down. Several of Pixel Magic’s shots
involved not only creating that speed change, but repairing countless digital artifacts resulting from the process. The
other majority of shots assigned to Pixel Magic were removing wires, cables, and rigs. A few of the more dramatic
shots are shown below.

Multiple cable removals through hair, and clothing repair.

A large portion of the wire removal shots contained up to 7 wires, and other cables that required removal. Some
of the rig removal shots required the re-creation of the set and in some cases, even the actor in order to seamlessly
remove them.Other visual effects shots included removal of actors and/or crew, reflection removals, and various
digital opticals.

Removal of Goblin sled rig and repair of building arch Removal of far right actors
Pixel Magic was also responsible for the assembly of the montage depicting Peter Parker’s brainstorm and eventual
creation of the famous Spider-Man suit. The minute plus montage was composed of over 40 live action and graphic
elements.

Other visual effects shots described below.

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 Goblin sled rig removal Police Officer wire removal

Safety wires removed from actors on balcony Multi-wire & cable removal

Multi-wire removal Wire removal and speed change

Multi-wire & “umbilical” removal Wire removal

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 A Critical Report on the movie Spiderman

Stabilization & wire removal Speed change and wire removal

THE END

SUBMITTED BY :-
SHASHI BHUSHAN PATEL

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