James Cameron's 'Spider-Man' Movie That Never Got Made Sounds FASCINATING

Did you know that James Cameron almost made a Spider-Man movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Peter Parker in the 90s? 

They actually took a decent amount of ideas and concepts from Cameron's unmade 'Spider-Man' and inserted them into the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire trilogy years later, such as the controversial organic web-shooters....

Here's the story: In 1990, Carolco Pictures acquired the rights to make a 'Spider-Man' film from Marvel for a whopping $5 million, and tapped frequent collaborator James Cameron to write, direct, and produce. It all fell apart before it ever got going, due to rights/contract issues and typical Hollywood bullshit, but the stories about the script/outline are fascinating.

Apparently, this iteration of 'Spider-Man' would tow the line between what is considered PG-13 and R-rated content, with a heavy use of profanity, a Peter Parker/Mary Jane sex scene on top of the Brooklyn Bridge, and even a nocturnal emissions scene where Peter wakes up covered in his own webbing one morning - I swear!

Like I said previously, Leo was tapped to play Peter Parker, with sitcom star Nikki Cox in Cameron's sights as MJ; and while there are tons of rumors online about the potential of an Arnold Schwarzenegger Doctor Octopus and a Kevin Spacey Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, the most credible information I could find pointed towards Electro as the movie's big bad guy, with Sandman operating as his backup/muscle. Lance Henriksen was up for the role of Electro, and Michael Biehn would play Sandman.

Here is some concept art that a high-tech AI generated to give you an idea of what that would've looked like….

It's stories like this that truly make me wish the multiverse was real, because I don't know if this James Cameron 'Spider-Man' necessarily sounds ~good~, but god dammit if I don't wanna see it - if only for Leo as Peter Parker!

Oh, and I almost forgot - Michael Douglas was one of the actors being considered to play J. Jonah Jameson! Could you imagine?!

Sunset Boulevard. Getty Images.

Ol' Hank Pym himself, out hunting for pictures of Spider-Man to slander the friendly neighborhood hero's name! Crazy. Talk about a 'What If…?'!

We discuss stories like this in My Mom's Basement, our little nerd podcast here at Barstool, all the time. Check it out….