The Weekly Planet - 11 The Weird History Of Spider-man In Film
Episode Date: December 9, 2013This week we're talking Gal Gadot being cast as Wonder Woman, The Amazing Spider-man 2 Trailer and the bizarre history of failed Spider-man movie projects.This one's a little early to thank all you wh...o've subscribed...so thanks! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London.
One woman has a secret.
The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost.
FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.
Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever?
Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH,
the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health,
to support life-saving progress in mental health care.
From May 27th to 31st,
people across Canada will rise together
and show those living with mental illness and addiction
that they're not alone.
Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind.
So, who will you rise for? Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That's sunrisechallenge.ca.
Shooting up your butthole The Weekly Planet, The Weekly Planet
Welcome to episode 11 of The Weekly Planet, official podcast of ComicBookMovie.com
My name is James, Junior Editor at ComicBookMovie
James, Junior Editor, that's your full name
That's my full name
You may know me as Mr. Sunday and joining me as always is my co-host, Nick Mason
It's great to be here, Mr. Junior Editor
It sure is.
What a week.
Mr. Manager.
That's...
What a week it's been.
Has it been a good week for you?
Yes.
Has it been a good week for comic book movie news?
Yes.
It sure has.
I thought that we'd only be talking about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 this week.
Uh-huh.
Because that was like the big thing.
Uh-huh, sure.
Because the trailer was coming out.
And did.
Mm-hmm.
Which, you know, we'll talk about in a bit. But then there was also other news. News that blew minds the big thing. Uh-huh, sure. Because the trailer was coming out and did, which, you know, we'll talk about in a bit.
But then there was also other news,
news that blew minds across the internet.
I'm ready.
Were they enraged?
A little bit, somewhat.
I'm ready to be enraged.
Sure, absolutely.
Now, I'm sure you've heard this because everybody has.
I'm feeling a white hot, like just a white hot dot in my brain
just building and building and building.
And whatever news you have, I'm going to unleash it on that news.
Love it. Okay, you like
women in comic book movies, right?
Yes. Good. I thought you were going to say you're not going to
release your white hot rage on that because you're
sexist. Yeah, no, I'll save it
for another one. You've trapped me.
You've trapped me. I'm not going to.
I'm going to push it aside.
Okay, so Gal Gadot
or Gal Gadot. It's G-A-D-O-T. We're going to. I'm going to push it aside. Okay, so Galgadot or Galgadot.
It's G-A-D-O-T.
We are going to learn in the future how to pronounce that.
We certainly are.
Because the news is going to tell us how to pronounce that.
That's right.
But we're not going to.
We don't know.
No, God no.
Why would we?
I'm going to say Galgadot.
I think it's Galgadot.
Like Waiting for Godot.
Like Waiting for Godot.
I had a friend who saw that play.
You know, it's got Ian McKellen.
Apparently it's like all existential.
Uh-huh, sure. But he said it was arty farty bullshit.
There you go.
Well, as we know, theatre, it's for nerds.
It is for nerds.
That's right.
Confirmed.
Anyway, she's been cast as Wonder Woman in the Batman vs. Superman movie, which is the
Man of Steel sequel, which may also feature The Flash, which is not the Justice
League movie, though it sounds a lot like a Justice League movie.
It does sound like it's building up to be a Justice League movie, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
What do you think of that?
I mean, first of all, what do you think of her being in the movie?
Not the actor, but Wonder Woman in Justice League.
What, do you mean Man of Steel?
Man, yes.
Two.
Edit around.
We'll edit around it.
It's going to be great.
What do you mean, Man of Steel?
Man... Yes.
Two.
Edit around.
We'll edit around it.
It's going to be great.
I'm hesitant because of character overload.
Yep.
Which, you know, classically it's been villain overload.
Yeah.
This might be hero overload.
Could very well be.
But, you know, only three.
Yeah.
Well, and possibly the Flash.
Okay, so four.
Well, they're talking about...
Maybe Green Arrow.
Maybe Green Arrow.
Why not?
Yep. They were talking maybe, like, it... Well, the rumour is that Okay, so four. Baby Green Arrow. Baby Green Arrow, why not? Yep.
They were talking maybe, well, the rumor is that it will be a smallish role.
And she might not even be Wonder Woman.
She might just be Diana Prince.
Yep.
And who knows, maybe she'll just turn up at the very end and maybe a cameo after the end credits.
Maybe not.
But yeah.
I don't know.
I think all these things as well, they'll do nothing but help the movie at the box office.
Totally.
Because who's not going to see this?
Because every few months they're like, well not even, every few weeks they drop something
else.
And it's blowing minds.
Unless...
Maybe not in a good way, but...
No, not at all.
Unless we get kind of...
At what point do you think we're going to hit the superhero movie wall?
Where people lose interest completely in superhero movies?
I think they're going to have to start changing it up soon because a lot of them are getting pretty formulaic.
I don't know about you, but I'm getting sick of everything grim.
Yep.
But I also don't like too much humour.
Can I be pleased?
You cannot be pleased.
No.
No.
We are the people of the internet.
Can you make us happy?
No, you cannot, movie industry.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Look, I think it must be coming to a tipping point though, right?
Yeah.
When there's too many comic book movies.
Yeah, yeah.
What do we do then with this podcast?
We can talk about other things.
Not well.
We don't know anything about anything else.
We barely know about this.
That's true.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What about as far as the actress goes?
Well, I have zero opinion, but I just Googled her name.
Good work.
And the first three news results, Superman versus Batman, no Wonder Woman, blah, blah, blah.
Okay, the second one says, Gal Gadot too skinny to play Wonder Woman.
Wow.
I know, right?
It's funny she said that.
We started on the body issues straight away.
We did.
Uncool.
Uncool, the media and the people who said those things.
Well, the thing is, though, that is a common complaint, that she doesn't look very Wonder
Woman because she's quite skinny.
You know, which is true.
But it's not like... You can say that about Christian Bale, when you're like, hey, he was in The Machinist.
Well, that's right.
He doesn't look very Batman-like, does he?
Well, that's exactly right.
It's not like there's not time for her to bulk up between now and then.
I don't think it's an issue at all.
It's not an issue,
and I think the media at this point
should really learn.
Like, during the Avengers,
you know, they would say...
Are we the media?
No, we're not the media.
We're radical anarchists.
Okay, cool.
Because we're using the internet
to get our message across.
But the mainstream media,
the MSM,
you know, those guys,
the fat cats,
them fat cats with their little press badges
and such. When the Avengers
came out, all the press, you know,
all the Q&A
question time situations, it was always
to the men, it was always, you know,
what do you think of the evolution of your character?
Blah, blah, blah. And then to Scarlett
Johanssonson it was always
what kind of diet did you
did you have to get it fit in that cat suit
you know
it was none of
you know
don't ask her about her character
which is the worst
just leave it alone
because that character has a lot of interesting backstories
but it's the same thing for Star Wars though
whenever people talk about
Carrie Fisher in Star Wars
it's like
first of all she was a coke head at the time.
Yeah, right.
But it's like, she had her breasts taped down for the first one.
Uh-huh.
Because she wasn't wearing a bra.
And that's always a big thing that always comes up in every interview with Carrie Fisher.
Why was there no bras in space?
Good question.
Sexist.
Space sexist.
Yep.
And the other thing is that she had to go to a fat farm.
What?
Well, that's what she called it, for the first Star Wars.
I did not know that.
And then do a similar thing.
Even with the coke?
Yeah. Well, I don't think she probably wasn't that coked up at called it. For the first Star Wars. I didn't know that. And then do a similar thing. Even with the coke? Yeah.
Well, I don't think she probably wasn't that coked up at that point.
Allegedly.
Allegedly.
Don't.
And yeah, that's true.
She was.
I'm holding it.
I don't know.
And they're the same thing.
She had to do the same thing for the metal bikini.
Huh.
And of course, there's all, you know, but that's pretty much the main talking points
for that character.
So, you know, sexism.
Sexism.
Yeah.
I'm against it.
That's right. Yeah. Also, people are saying that Zack Snyder doesn't know how to, you know, sexism. Sexism. Yeah. I'm against it. That's right.
Yeah.
Also, people are saying that Zack Snyder doesn't know how to, you know, how to cast women or
whatever, which I actually don't think is true.
I haven't seen Sucker Punch.
Have you seen Sucker Punch?
No, I hear it's the worst.
I've heard it's the worst.
But he's also Lena Headley from 300.
He cast her.
Yep.
She's a...
Headley?
Hedy.
Hedy.
She's amazing.
The woman who played Silk Spectre in Watchmen.
Great. Amazing. Yep. Faora from Superman of Steel. Oh, yep, sure. She's amazing. The woman who played Silk Spectre in Watchmen. Great.
Amazing.
Yep.
Faora from Superman of Steel.
Oh, yep, sure.
Amazing.
Great.
And Superman's mother from Man of Steel.
Also amazing, though in it briefly.
I guess Lois Lane, though some people don't take issue with her.
But they're all strong female characters.
I don't think it's an issue on that point.
It's not like Michael Bay where he's got someone draped over a motorcycle in short shorts.
He's got someone draped over a motorcycle in short shorts.
It's not like Michael Bay where allegedly he car swum by having them come over to his house and wash his car.
Allegedly.
Allegedly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you want to hear the deal with the Flash though?
Yes.
So this is a rumoured story.
Uh-huh.
That basically...
The Flash is getting all over the place.
He is, isn't he?
He is.
Yeah.
Did you see that?
No.
I'm not up to it yet.
Okay, cool.
That's getting a little bit more formulaic, that show.
I'm slowly catching up, but there's a bit of, you know...
What episode are you at now in season one?
Like, 16?
I think it gets better in season two.
So push through.
I will.
Push through the pain barrier.
Fantastic.
That's a lot of sci-fi comic book kind of media.
Just push through it.
Some of it is better. Some of it is better.
Some of it is okay.
You will enjoy it.
All you have to do
is force it down.
Yeah.
There's been a bit of,
you know,
we're the same,
you and I.
Oh, yeah.
Are they the same, though?
Is that why they said it?
No, I think they're...
No, they are.
Okay.
I told a friend of mine
that I was going to be
watching Arrow
and I'm like,
I'm way behind.
I haven't watched any episodes.
And he's like, yeah, it's good, but what generally happens is he finds a corporate, you know, some sort of corporate criminal.
And he says, you meant your evil ways, or I'll kill you, right?
And then they either do or they don't, and then he kills them or he doesn't kill them.
But in the meantime, he just goes into their headquarters and just kills all
their employees. Like all the bodyguards
who presumably have families
wives and children and bills to pay
and whatever who are just guarding this guy who they
think is just some
corporate fat cat guy.
They just get an arrow through the chest and it's fine.
Nobody mentions it. Well they kind of
steer away from that in season 2.
Because of all the murders. Because of all the murders.
Like, he drops the list and he changes his code.
I won't spoil it for you, but...
It's not really that big a spoiler, but yeah, that changes.
But yeah.
As far as the Flash goes, though...
So, this is the story.
Yep.
The Justice League will represent the UN.
So, Superman represents the world, because he's an immigrant and he's a citizen of the world.
Uh-huh.
Batfleck is the US. Uh-huh. Batfleck is the US.
Uh-huh.
American.
Yep.
Um, Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman.
Oh, so this is, this is the Justice League's set up.
Yeah.
Okay.
This is the Justice League's set up.
So they, so yeah, so they're not just, we're the Justice League of America.
It's like, we're the Justice League of everybody.
Of you and me and that poor kid in France.
Yep.
I don't know his name.
But, uh, but, um, hey, so Gal know his name. But, but,
hey,
so Gal Gadot is,
is,
Wonder Woman is like
a Middle East
kind of area.
No,
apparently not.
But that's,
this is,
this is a rumour.
So,
who knows?
And The Flash will be
possibly a Latino
or South American gentleman.
Huh.
Whatever's.
Okay,
next big news.
Hey,
quick,
quick check.
Sure.
Are you drunk or hung over today
good question yeah glad you asked earlier okay i uh i did go out i went to a winery tour yesterday
and i didn't drink that much because i was like you know what i don't want to be an incredible
not really a wine guy to be honest yeah i had a few beers i got immersed in wine the whole time
everything fell apart by the end.
People were jumping all over each other.
Have you ever done a winery tour?
It starts off all civil.
Yeah.
People are like, oh, this is delightful.
And then it's just at the end, just people crashing into each other and throwing things.
Yeah.
It's madness.
And I bailed.
Because I love comic book movies.
Absolutely, you do.
Okay.
I love how you didn't know, though.
You were like, he could be.
He still looks terrible.
It's tough to say. You do. You're like, he could be. He still looks terrible. It's tough to say.
You do.
You're like rotten, mate.
No, you're fine.
So big X-Men news as well.
I'm ready.
Bryan Singer announced, and this happened the same time as the Wonder Woman and Spider-Man
trailer, that we're getting X-Men Apocalypse in 2016.
Big X-Men movie.
Yeah.
Big X-Men villain.
That's right. And that's all we know about it. That is just the name and-Men movie. Yeah. Big X-Men villain. That's right.
And that's all we know about it.
That is just the name and the release date.
Yep.
Now, I don't know that much about Apocalypse because I'm only a casual X-Men fan.
But my understanding is you know more than anybody in the world about Apocalypse.
Boy, do I.
I can say heaps of words about him.
Not necessarily accurate.
So where do you think this movie will go?
What direction?
Well, there's going to have to be his origin story.
So there's going to be...
Because he's the first mutant.
Yeah.
So he's 5,000 years old or what have you.
Yeah.
Born in Egypt.
And he's one of those characters who's got a...
He's very Marvel in that there's a lot of...
He's interacting with a lot of characters.
And his powers are sort of a combination of
a lot of things.
Because I read that he can do pretty much anything.
He can do anything.
He can, did you never play Marvel vs. Capcom?
Yeah, yeah.
The video game?
Yeah, he's the villain in that.
Oh, I can't.
The giant one.
I never beat those games.
Drill hand.
At the end of those games.
He's got a big drill hand.
He's got a big drill hand.
They're madness, those games.
Yeah.
It's just flashing.
Is that where the villain is just half the screen at the end
yeah that's the one
okay I never got there
okay well so basically
he's a combination
of a lot of things
drill hand
he's got a drill hand
but he can
you know he can
change size and shape
he can you know
project energy
or teleport
or you know
pretty much
I think he can
read minds
yeah he can read
he's got
turn invisible he's got like complete molecular control so he can read he's got he's turned invisible
he's got like
complete molecular control
so he can turn into anything
and he's also sort of
he's also got
technology from the Celestials
who are sort of like
this alien
this alien
super advanced alien race
so you know
well they've given him stuff
I think he stole it
okay
it's a little bit of a hego
but yeah
so he's got
but again
because that's as a character he's so marvellous we're going to have to cut some of that little bit vague I think. But yeah. But again because that's so
as a character
he's so marvellous
we're going to
have to cut
some of that out.
Yeah.
Like I think
the alien tech
is going to
have to go away
because they're
been any aliens
in the X-Men
universe?
The cinematic
universe?
Not to my
knowledge.
Okay then that's
going to go.
Yeah.
I'm going to say
Egyptian backstory
pretending to be a
god throughout the
centuries.
He's gone into
hibernation now
he's back.
Yeah.
Well isn't he waking up from hibernation now he's back yeah well isn't he waking up
from hibernation
from Cable
coming back in time
is that one of the versions
oh that's right
because now
we've introduced time travel
into the
yeah
okay so maybe that's
mind's time travel
oh yeah
it's not actually
okay
but you know
they could chat
who knows how that movie
is going to turn out
I reckon they're going to
skip that
I reckon Cable is too
I reckon Cable is too odd
for the movies I reckon no go on I reckon Cable is too odd for the movies.
No go on.
I reckon it's just going to be Apocalypse in Hibernation.
Nobody remembers he exists and now he's back in the modern era.
And they're going to have to fight him.
I think that's going to be it.
Well, they're merging, though, the Fantastic Four and X-Men characters.
Because they're owned by Fox.
So they're expanding it.
So they might be seeing more of that kind of stuff.
They're trying to make it more Marvel.
That sounds awful.
Yeah.
I think there would be no...
There's no...
There's going to be two competing Marvel universes.
The Marvel Studios universe, which is great, more or less.
With a couple of misses, but it's a great, fun universe.
And then there's just going to be Marvel universe for dummies, which is the Sony one.
Fox.
Yeah, Fox, whatever.
But I feel like this is like another thing where they're going to get in Apocalypse before
the Avengers get in Thanos properly.
Right.
And before Justice League get in Darkseid.
Uh-huh.
So will it be like, so will he show up in the Avengers 3 or whatever, Thanos, and they'll be like, we've seen this guy, he was in bloody, you know,
whatever.
Because they're pretty similar-ish, big hulking grey-ish kind of guy.
That's a good point, actually.
Oh, are you saying 2016 is the year of the big hulking grey-ish guy?
I can't wait.
I'm calling it now.
I'm going to get all the Slurpee cups.
Yeah.
All the commemorative Slurpee cups.
That's it.
Because you know how they're both using Quicksilver and whatever.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, they're not
obviously the same character
but we know that
but the general public
I'd say wouldn't be able
to perceive that.
Also, this movie
could literally be set
in any point in time.
Yeah.
Because he's always
banging around time and space
isn't he?
Yes.
So you wouldn't necessarily
have to be Wolverine-centric.
I hope not.
Yeah.
Well, Hugh Jackman
said this week, he's like, I don't know if I want to do another Wolverine. He's like, I'm kind of, he to be Wolverine-centric. I hope not. Yeah. Well, Hugh Jackman said this week,
he's like,
I don't know if I want to do another Wolverine.
He's like, I'm kind of...
He's doing Wolverine 3 and Days of Future Past,
and he's like, I don't know, man.
I don't know.
How old is he now?
He's 45.
I guess so.
Seconds.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Can't go forever, can you?
Exactly, yeah.
That's interesting.
But you know what?
They really need to, you know,
kind of step up
more X-Men characters
because he will leave eventually
and you need somebody else.
So I feel like now
if Robert Downey Jr.
left the Marvel Universe
it would take a hit
but it would bounce back
because it's got
other massive properties.
Thor just crossed
600 million.
Thor the Dark Lord
600 million worldwide.
So they'll still do alright
but I don't know.
Then again First Class is amazing and Wolverine's not really in it but would any of those characters could any of those characters carry a solo movie I think um Magneto could young Magneto I guess so
yeah but other than that probably not maybe Iceman maybe Toad maybe Juggernaut no none of those
you're a liar there's that red hot or white hot anger you were talking about right there.
All right.
Now we're getting into the main crux of this episode.
FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who
play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from
Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret, the other a mission to reveal it before
thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.
Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever? Join the Sunrise Challenge
to raise funds for CAMH,
the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health,
to support life-saving progress in mental health care.
From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together
and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone.
Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind.
So, who will you rise for?
Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That's
sunrisechallenge.ca.
Can I mention,
and I think this might lead into it,
Spider-Man musical news.
That's closing up on Broadway.
It is. And hang on, where were we?
It didn't come here, did it? No, it didn't.
I would have definitely seen it
I think
because it's too elaborate
yeah
yeah
so this news report
says Bono
optimistic
about future
of Spider-Man musical
so maybe it's gone to Vegas
I think that might be the
it's not
yeah I really wish
I'd have seen this
by all accounts
listeners if you haven't
seen it
by all accounts
yeah it's just
a nonsensical farce
it has really nothing to do with
it cost 75 million dollars
you know how many people injured themselves
before getting it
75 million dollars
and
just
it's also
something that annoys me
in order to make it work,
apparently it didn't work, but in order for it to work on any level,
the creators had to add in additional characters that don't exist in the Spider-Man universe.
Oh yeah, there's a female villain.
There's Arachne, who was originally the main villain, I think,
and then they had to rework the entire thing, now she's like a some sort of flashback character and there was like a geek chorus like a greek chorus
that would explain things that were happening because they were so unclear and there was a
villain they had the sinister six but instead of like they took out one of the six i think it might
have been craven the hunter and replaced it with a new character called swiss miss what is that why
is there not surely there's another if even if they want a gender balance or something i don't with a new character called Swiss Miss? What is that? Why?
Is there not... Surely there's another...
Even if they wanted
gender balance
or something like that,
surely they could have
replaced Craven
or Electro
or somebody
with any other female...
Spider-Man's got enough villains.
He's got a lot of villains.
If you can't build
a Spider-Man musical
with the existing characters
that he has,
with hundreds of
existing characters,
you've messed up somewhere.
I don't think there's a man in musical theatre
who'd be willing to go shirtless.
Yeah.
That's what I think that comes down to.
That's a really good point, actually.
That's pretty incredible.
Is this Swiss?
Swiss Miss.
Swiss Miss.
Yeah, although, so that's going to move to Vegas.
I would hope, though,
there was an option here
that maybe it'll be replaced
by the Australian musical King Kong,
the musical, which I just saw.
Is that an Australian musical?
Yes.
I did not know that.
It's at the Regent Theatre.
Yeah, I've seen it.
Americans, if it gets there, if it gets to America, see it.
Australian listeners, get a cheap ticket, go and see it.
Are you sure it's an Australian musical?
Yes.
Huh.
You saw it as well?
I saw it, yeah.
Huh.
Let's discuss it.
Okay, just quickly.
I thought it was great, but not for any of the reasons that the producers thought it was great.
Well, terrible songs, I thought.
Awful.
Forgettable songs.
The story is nonsensical.
Totally.
There's a song that goes for about five minutes.
The main character guy sings about his father building a bridge.
And then it just then peters out.
Yeah.
And people are just confused.
There was a lot of smatterings and confused applause.
Yeah.
Yeah. But also, it's an amazing spectacle
when it gets to the
second act
I went of course
they just want this
to be Moulin Rouge
with a giant ape
there's a dubstep
sequence
there's two dubstep
sequences in it
how did they do that
it's set in the 30s
yeah
incredible
weird staging
I remember I turned
to the person I saw it with
and I said,
if this musical opens with somebody
talking about singing about New York,
the songs are all going to be garbage.
And the first line is something like,
New York, greatest city in the world!
I'm like, this is going to be shit.
Oh boy, and now.
But yeah.
But it's just,
they just packed it in
with the most ridiculous stuff they could.
There's even a bit,
my favourite part,
is there's a bit where
the ape does a leap
and in slow motion
and he leaps
and he hits the ground
with a three point
superhero
like two feet
and like a giant fist
on the ground
and then
all the
performers around him
are wired
and they just
fly out
there's a shockwave
and they fly up
into the air
in slow motion
it was great
anyway fingers crossed that goes to Broadway and we get Spider-Man just fly out there's a shockwave and they fly up in the air in slow motion it was great anyway
fingers crossed
that goes to Broadway
and we get
Spider-Man
because the region
has been rigged out
for just weird
special effects
and weird staging
so
fingers crossed
I really hope so
oh boy
listen to see it
see it
for reals
don't pay a lot of money
for the ticket
and maybe
take your favourite recreational drug before you go in just there's an option for you well I had a friend who's had to see it for reals don't pay a lot of money for the ticket and maybe take your favourite
recreational drug
before you go in
just there's an option
for you
well I had a friend
who's had to see it twice
and he said the second time
did they put one of those
exploding collars on him
pretty much
he went with his girlfriend
and then people at work
bought tickets
and he didn't have the guts
to tell them
oh no maybe
I don't wanna
I don't wanna go
because I've already seen it
so he just went along
like a
I was gonna use a bad word but I'm not gonna no don't want to go. Because I've already seen it. So he just went along. Like a...
I was going to use a bad word,
but I'm not going to.
No, don't do that.
And he goes,
it was a painful watch,
second time around.
Oh, really?
Because I've seen The Ape.
That's a good point, actually.
We've spent way too much time on this.
No, more time.
No, that's all right.
Continue with you.
Okay.
Spider-Man.
We are going to talk about
the history of the Spider-Man films
leading up to the Raimi film.
But before that,
we've got to talk about the trailer.
Okay.
What did you think of it?
I don't like mechanical Rhino.
I wish he was regular Rhino.
Yeah.
But I think because they did the lizard last time,
they were like,
we've done a kind of hard-paneled man.
Yeah, okay, fine.
Then again, that would lead perfectly into the Rhino
because...
They've already got the technology.
Yeah, they've got the technology, yeah.
Oh, no, I think...
Are you sick of mechanical suits in movies? Probably, yeah. technology. Yeah, they've already got the technology, yeah. Oh no, I think, are you sick of mechanical suits in movies?
Probably, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's the ultimate Spider-Man version, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's an interesting choice, but...
Another interesting choice, that guy as Harry Osborn.
Oh, Dane DeHaan?
Once you've had James Franco as anything, he's a bit snivelling, this guy.
Well, I guess, you know, that's alright though, isn't it?
Can't he be a snivelling dude?
I didn't love
James Franco as
whatever Harry Osborn.
How dare you.
Because he's not
I don't know
I love James Franco
but I was like
eh
eh
eh
eh
eh
eh
eh
You were conflicted.
You know?
Yeah.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I'm looking forward
to it.
And that's another
thing.
There are three
villains that we
know of in this
movie.
Rhino which
is apparently in it for the first only 20 minutes or so.
Okay, good.
Allegedly, apparently.
Uh-huh.
The Electro, who looks incredible.
Yeah.
Do you agree with that?
Okay, yeah, he does.
And, um...
Kind of a Jeff Lightingbald face, but whatever.
It's fine.
We've discussed it before.
It's fine.
My dreams aren't going to come true.
And the, um...
Some form of the Goblin.
Could be Green Goblin. Could be Hob of the goblin could be green goblin
could be hobgoblin could be new goblin i don't know you gobbled new goblin they were really they
really stopped trying at spider-man yeah it even just said i'm like on the action figure package
of a new goblin whatever whatever yeah ski ski snowboard man flying snowboard man i um i was
gonna say yeah well i he's never actually called new Goblin in the movie, so I'm sure that was
like a marketing thing where they were just like, we'll just call it New Goblin, that's
fine.
Great.
Yeah.
Don't like it.
Yeah.
But I don't know.
What do you think about all those villains in it?
Again, I'm sick of Villain Overload.
Yeah.
But again, if they're going to restage it so we see the Rhino at the start because that's
just Spider-Man's day-to-day at this point, I'm okay with it.
Cool.
All right.
Well, there was also hints towards Doc Ock, Vulture.
Oh, because in the lab, there's the...
Which is cool.
I don't think they'll be in it.
No.
But I thought that was cool.
As well as Venom and Morbius.
Their names are mentioned.
When Harry Osborn's like, Peter Parker, the Oscorp has been watching you.
And he uses his hologram table or whatever.
And he's...
I didn't find this.
Oh.
So I'm going to need to find it And he's... I didn't find this. I found it.
It's got a few names of things.
It's got like...
What's the insane asylum called
in Spider-Man World?
I can't remember.
No.
It's like their Arkham.
Yeah, yeah.
I can't remember what it's called.
But there's that
and there's something about Morbius
and there's something about Venom.
Huh.
So, perhaps saying that
all these villains might lead into
the Sinister Six in the next movie.
People are saying that.
You know what I'd love to see in the next movie?
What's that?
Sinister Six.
They all show up and they kick the crap out of Peter Parker.
He's like, why?
Why?
And then he gets the black suit
and he goes back and he just tears through them.
That would be cool.
That would be pretty good.
I'd like to see the black suit done properly.
I'm tired of reboots.
Do something new. Do somethingots. Do something new.
Do something new.
Do something new film industry.
Come on.
What about some kind of blue suit?
I would have said...
Ooh.
Ooh.
Or a mechanical suit.
Yeah.
He had a...
He's been armored.
He's been armored, yeah.
In the past.
Ridiculous.
Yeah.
I don't know.
That list of names.
Morbius, good.
Yep.
Venom, eh. Not so good, yeah. I want more obscure names. That list of names. Morbius, good. Venom, eh.
Not so good, yeah.
I want more obscure names.
Yeah.
Quite frankly.
I'd like to see Carnage,
but you can't go Carnage without Venom.
Just like a complete psychopath.
Right.
Because you know Spider-Man,
you can kind of,
a lot of his villains,
you can reason with them
and they're smart people and whatever.
If you really sat them down for long enough,
you could probably explain them out
of doing whatever they
Like a long brunch
Yeah like a long brunch
Yeah yeah yeah
Like a couple of mimosas
Yeah
Like a long brunch
Yeah okay
Yeah
But carnage not so much
Nah
Anyway
There's that all out
So do you think
it's going to be good?
I never said that
Do you think
it's going to be good?
Oh no
Really?
Yeah
I still haven't seen
the first one
Okay fair point
Well look
I like the fact that they've dropped the seem to have dropped the grim tone from the first
one, which you have not seen.
No.
But, so, it's a lot more colourful, which I like.
Yep.
So, more comic book-ish, I guess.
Because Spider-Man's not supposed to be...
He broods a little bit, but he's not your Bruce Wayne brooding kind of guy.
You know what I mean?
Another thing is that, in the first one as as well they did a lot of mechanical web swinging
a lot of that was done
practical
okay
and they seem to just
gone nah we're not
doing that anymore
and they've just done
all CGI
which is fine though
I mean
of course you've got to
do a lot of that
yeah yeah
I mean there still is
CGI web swinging
in the first one
but there's a lot of
practical stuff
does it look good
the practical stuff
that's fine
okay then
yeah
well if we're all
ambivalent then
CGI's the way to go.
Because then you can have him, you know,
because he's very
flexible. Yeah.
A stuntman's not going to be able to do that.
When the, you know, the...
What about the stuntman who's stretched?
Oh yeah, the stretched. Yeah, like maybe
they've broken a few of his bones in preparation.
Yeah, definitely. That would work.
Because when I was going to...
In the 90s, when
Spider-Man was taken over by Todd McFarlane,
and he sort of really
ramped up how dynamic-looking
that character is, and kind of
throwing his legs and arms and legs in all sorts of weird
beyond-human kind of
ways. Spider-ish poses?
Spider-ish poses.
That was really sort of a turning
point for that character. And if you can, if that's not going to work on screen, I want
to see that on screen. Yeah. Basically. Fair point. Yeah. Well, I think there will be a
lot of that. Otherwise you get the 1970s Spider-Man TV series. Leading into. Oh boy. So now you've
changed your mind. It's going to be the best movie ever. Moving on. We are going to talk about today the history of Spider-Man films. There's a number of unsuccessful projects
that tried to get off the ground since the mid-70s up until the Raimi films. And it is
just nonsense. Really? Because I started to read this earlier this week. I'm like, what
are we going to do for a podcast? I'm like, wow, there is a lot of stuff here. A lot of
crazy... Does anyone get murdered? Well, wow, there is a lot of stuff here. A lot of crazy...
Does anyone get murdered?
Well, yeah, there's a little bit of that.
It's a lot of irrelevant stuff.
This is like the history of the jetpack.
It's exactly like that. People keep stealing the jetpack.
People get murdered over jetpacks.
Guess what, guys? Jetpacks are useless.
Burn your legs off.
Fly around for three minutes.
You know what you can do? Get in a plane.
Yep.
Fly around for hours.
Idiots.
Would you not buy a jetpack?
You know what?
This episode I'm going to direct my white hot rage towards people who enjoy jetpacks.
I know.
Gee.
So you don't like the Rocketeer?
That was great though.
That's the exception.
It's pretty great.
Exception that proves the rule.
Okay.
The first one was in 1975.
Uh huh. This was a... A dark age. The first one was in 1975. Uh-huh.
This was a...
A dark age.
It sure was.
My God.
I'm so glad I didn't, like...
These weren't my big years in that era.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
I just don't know what would have become of me.
I just...
I just don't know.
But that's looking back.
That's looking back, though.
You wouldn't have...
You wouldn't have missed Facebook and Twitter.
You're right, yeah.
Because you wouldn't have known they existed.
Because I'm too busy recording cassette tapes.
Correct.
Which I guess I still did.
Didn't even happen in the 70s.
Yeah, that's true.
8 Tracks, man.
8 Tracks, man.
Yeah, there you go.
Okay, so Steve Krantz, one of the producers of the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon,
tried to launch a live-action Spider-Man movie in the mid-70s.
And here's the interesting part, even though that's really interesting.
That's very interesting, the thing that you said.
You said a name.
You said a number of dates.
Originally, he wanted to make it a splashy action fantasy musical.
Yeah!
Do you think we'll ever get a terrible, flashy Spider-Man musical?
No.
It's too...
It's a dream.
Yeah.
It's a beautiful dream.
We can only imagine
the wonders that would
have come out of that.
But eventually
he realised basically
that the more
straightforward approach
was the one to take.
So in 1976...
Have you ever seen
Cop Rock?
I've heard of Cop Rock.
We should watch Cop Rock.
Do you want to explain
Cop Rock just quickly?
Well, it's a
police procedural.
Yep.
But it's also a musical.
And it's like 22 episodes a season.
So it's different songs every...
Is that right?
I don't know how many episodes it might have been.
I think mine might have been cancelled after eight or something.
So it was completely everything is sun.
Well, I just don't know.
We should get it.
We should find it.
I'll get it.
Cop Rock.
I'm going to check legitimate sources right now while you speak.
Yes, you are.
I'm going to let you know if we can get it.
I'm going to check legitimate sources right now while you speak.
Yes, you are. I'm going to let you know if you get it.
So in 1976, he was pitching another Spider-Man story that involved a college-aged Spider-Man.
That's more in line, I think.
Includes the death of Gwen Stacy.
Okay.
He fights a hundred foot tall robot.
I'm on board.
Plus Nazis.
Do the Nazis control the giant robot?
You'd think they would.
I think they're separate things because I've got them on two different lines here.
But the giant robots are the Nazis' thing.
That's true.
I mean, other things, certainly.
Yeah.
Not fun things.
Just being pricks.
Yeah, just being pricks.
Obviously, great uniforms, that's two.
And three, giant robots. Usually with a brain inside, maybe Hitler's brain inside.
I would assume they can...
Well, let's assume they could...
I'll put them on the same line.
Okay, please do.
Now, that one obviously never got on the ground.
But in 1977, Columbia Pictures, who actually own the rights to Spider-Man now...
This is the part that you particularly wanted to talk about, is that right?
The disco-era Spider-Man TV series about a grown-up Peter Parker who gets spider-based powers.
You loved that show when you were a kid, didn't you?
You know what?
Slash movie.
I remember renting the VHS a lot.
Yeah.
That's pretty much it.
But those were the...
I remember there's a daring rescue right at the start, where he very awkwardly and very
slowly climbs up a building.
Like a spider.
Like a spider, very incredibly slowly, to rescue somebody who's about to jump off a ledge.
Well, the first movie...
Do you like fast pacing?
Do I ever.
You won't find it in this.
That was in the day, though, where it was like, you get the Superman movie, that's it.
Yep.
And everything else is garbage or never comes into fruition.
That's true.
This one being the garbage side of things.
So basically, the one that you saw, it it sounds like was about a new age guru who might
have told people to become criminals and then he threatens to make ten New Yorkers commit
suicide unless he gets ten million dollars.
That's the one.
Yeah.
So he's Spider-Man Invents Web Shooter swings into action against the guru and his army
of samurai?
I don't remember that part.
Huh.
There were two other movies that were added together from this series.
One called Spider-Man Strikes Back, where...
Atomic Bomb.
Yes!
I remember that one.
Yeah.
So basically, Peter Parker's students accidentally gained the materials to create an atomic bomb.
Accidentally.
How do you accidentally...
Dunno.
Yeah.
You crack open, like...
And were they gonna use it?
They're gonna be like, this'll be funny.
What a prank.
Yeah.
We're gonna prank the dude with this He's never gonna expect it
And the other one was called
What was Fallout?
The other one was called
Spider-Man the Dragon's Challenge
Don't remember that one
Which was basically
Spider-Man goes to Hong Kong
To chat
To save a Chinese politician
Accused of corruption
Resulting in a boat chase
Hijinks.
Yeah.
So,
I don't know,
maybe,
well,
that was like,
there were more than
those episodes,
but those are the ones
that were edited together
as telemovies
and were in some places
screened in series.
Let's get some of these.
Next week,
I'm going to report back on these.
Really?
Yes.
God.
Not all of them,
obviously.
You know what,
I'm just going to
sort of scrub through
and watch five minutes at a time. From what I've seen, his webbing is just rope. It's what? I'm just going to sort of scrub through and watch five minutes
at a time.
From what I've seen,
his webbing is just rope.
It's pretty much just rope.
Like white kind of
stringy rope frayed.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And his spider sense
was very vaguely defined.
Like you could just see
sort of blue and red
like flashes of
just things.
If that was his actual
spider sense,
that would be really distracting.
So if someone's about
to punch you
and then you get a blue and red flash,
that person would definitely hit you.
They would definitely hit you, yeah.
Straight through that. I was going to say, Hong Kong,
interesting choice. Batman's gone there since.
Sure.
I guess, does Asia love Spider-Man?
There's an Asian Spider-Man TV
series where
he pilots
a giant robot. Nazi robot? No, it's a regular robot. It's an a giant robot.
Nazi's robot?
No, it's a regular robot.
It's an amazing Japanese robot.
It's an alien robot.
An alien comes down and gives him alien... Is this one of those things where they didn't actually have the rights and they just did
it?
No, it's a real thing, I think.
God.
And it's an alien comes down.
It's an alien with spider powers.
Yep, makes sense.
Who I think needs a champion to
save the world or whatever and so he gives a guy why does he care he gives it's like a it's like a
japanese i don't know it's like a japanese motocross daredevil or something and he gives him the spider
powers then he becomes spider-man but there's very little i've watched some clips there's very little
actual spider-manning there's mo because he's got the giant robot obviously yep and the motorbike
and the motorbike but he's also got like a Spider-Man car.
Just drives around in it.
It's pretty cool.
But yeah, it's one of those ones that follows the classic format of there's like a villain
and he goes to punch on with a villain.
Yeah.
And then the villain grows to gigantic size before he can defeat him.
And he's like, well, but he is the giant robot then.
Just like Power Rangers.
Just like Power Rangers.
And every other Japanese thing ever.
Yep.
Exactly.
So yeah. After that. Sushi. Yeah. You're just about to And every other Japanese thing ever. Yep. Exactly. So, yeah.
After that...
Sushi.
You're just about to eat it.
Gross and gigantic size.
You need a robot.
So, in 1982, Roger Corman.
You know Roger Corman.
Oh, yeah.
The B-movie.
The king of B-movies.
That's it.
He was going to produce his own version.
Licensed or unlicensed?
Licensed.
In a big way.
He made, sorry, the legendary original Fantastic Four movie.
Oh, the one that...
Yeah, okay.
It was never released.
Yeah, and he nearly made this particular Spider-Man movie.
Have you seen that Fantastic Four movie?
No.
It's in clips.
It looks just the worst.
Oh, good.
Yeah.
Now, basically, the Coleman movie was based on a treatment by Stan Lee himself.
Ooh.
Yeah, which stuck pretty close
to the comics
and the story was basically this
Peter Parker is a college student again
uh huh
facing Doctor Octopus
and he would have had
a few love interests
including Mary Jane Watson
and a sexy KGB agent
ooh
who I assume is Black Widow
uh huh
was Black Widow around then
yeah
she was
yeah
yeah
but apparently Lee's screenplay
was too ambitious,
including a huge
sequence where
Spider-Man fights
atop the UN
building with
lots of swinging,
sticking to walls,
leaping,
jumping and
falling,
all while dodging
Doc Ock's
arms.
Do you think
I was going to
say arms then?
Yes.
Yeah,
fair enough.
Okay,
that's good.
Ah,
that's great.
And there was
probably also a
really long involved
sequence where
Spider-Man is
manted by
Stan Lee.
Well, buddy, you should say that.
There we go.
But I'm going to get to that later.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man also finds time to prevent nuclear war with Russia.
They were all about that back in the day.
What is this?
Yeah, the 80s.
They were all about that.
Was everybody just terrified of nuclear war?
It's pretty bad.
Yeah, I know.
But like, because I remember asking my dad, you know, I was like, when you were, you know,
my age or whatever, were you like terrified of nuclear war? And he's like, yeah, you know, but like, because I remember asking my dad, you know, I was like, when you were, you know, my age or whatever, were you
like terrified of the nuclear war? And he's like, yeah,
you know, what could you do?
You couldn't stop it. Keep calm and carry on.
Yeah, that's it. Uh-huh. So, yeah.
But, uh, no, to Corman's
dismay, the production company let the rights expire.
He never made it. Aww.
You okay?
I would have liked to see that. Yeah. I would have liked to see
all of these, except for the ones that were actually made.
Yes.
We'll never be happy.
No.
So in 1985, the Cannon Group purchased them the right...
Produces a thunder kick.
Is it?
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, they did a lot of...
I was going to say crap, but that sounds amazing.
That's the greatest karate kung fu blockbuster of all time.
Thunder kick.
Was one of his legs made of thunder?
No, but he had, I don't know, he was very powerful kicks.
He could do at least one really good kick.
Just one really good kick.
So they bought the rights for $225,000 plus profit sharing.
And apparently, and this doesn't sound right, but I checked in a couple of sources,
put out a 50-page pull-out ad touting spider-man among its upcoming productions
50 pages that can't be right it must be right page 50 yeah i think so yeah that's insane and
also page 58 that's not a very good no yeah that's just the middle of the newspaper that is yeah that
is riddled with errors that whatever that statement is 50 that's impossible what what do you put in 50
pages you know what it is It's just a 50 page
issue of Spider-Man.
And then Roger Corman
wrote his name on the
front and then they
just, in crayon,
and they just sent it
to the movie execs.
Yeah, pretty much.
Yeah.
Sounds like it.
So the Israeli
cousins, producers
who were producing
this movie,
called Golden and
Globus, those are
their last names,
they were known
for their schlocky films
and they were trying
to go legit
through canon.
So basically,
Golden,
one of the guys,
he produced
the Death Wish sequel,
some of them.
Sure.
Masters of the Universe,
which is amazing.
And Superman 4.
The worst one.
I would argue
that 3 is the worst.
4 is very very clearly the budget
has dropped out
oh big time
and just
it's just
like
as much as I dislike them
the first couple
you know
quite majestic
yeah
fourth one
just kind of
just walking down the street
being Superman
being Superman
yeah
I do like evil Superman
in Superman 3 though
yeah
where he fights himself
what an achievement
what a cinematic achievement
now, despite being hugely enthusiastic
about the Spider-Man character, Golden was very unclear
about the concept, he wanted to change
Spider-Man's origin to be caused by
an evil scientist named
Dr. Zork, who creates mutants
great, you're following?
yeah, I'm following so far, obviously
he's going to create mutants
if he's an evil scientist.
That's right.
Peter Parker would be
a lowly employee of Dr. Zork
who accidentally gets turned
into Spider-Man
and then has to fight
Dr. Zork's army of mutants.
In another screenplay
that was considered,
Spider-Man gets turned into
an eight-legged tarantula.
A giant one.
For how long?
It says here, 18 years. years. I don't know. It sounds
more like a horror movie. It does, doesn't it? Like The Fly or something. Yeah, yeah.
But back in the day, I guess, you know, your superhero origin stories were not, like nobody
was precious about them. No. Maybe they were, I don't know. We'll never know. Yeah, exactly.
But I'm sure people, you know, producers were just like, oh, who cares?
Yeah.
Hang on a second, Justice.
Done.
It's just kind of, you know, it's just kind of comic book schlock, who cares kind of thing.
Yeah.
Whereas now it's very important.
It is.
You've got to get it right.
Dr. Zork.
Like, why would you...
What my...
Where is the thought process where you think Kid getting bitten by a radioactive spider
is worse than a guy working for Dr. Zork who creates evil mutants?
Even the name.
Yeah.
It's the name, isn't it?
It's the name.
It could have been Dr. Smith and you'd have been like, that's reasonable.
Yeah.
Zork.
Have you ever met anyone called Zork?
I've never met anyone named Zork, no.
God.
I don't know.
Anyway, in this version, apparently, Scott...
No, this is true.
Stuntman Scott Lever, who I don't know, was considered to play Peter Parker.
And there's actually shots of him, test shots, where he's sort of in a Spider-Man-ish suit.
And there's one where he's in half civilian clothes, half Spider-Man clothes.
So, I don't know what the deal is there.
What do you mean?
Split down the middle?
Split exactly down the middle.
That's weird.
Yeah.
You know what that is?
That is a weird low-budget transforming effect shot or whatever.
They'll use a sequence of mirrors or something like that
and just cut from one to the other
and it looks like he's changed clothes instantly or whatever.
But he doesn't need to change his clothes instantly.
That's the other thing.
He's not Superman.
It's the 80s, man.
Yeah, it is.
Sure is.
I wish it was the 80s now.
No, you don't.
No, you're right.
Okay, apparently they also dreamed of casting Tom Cruise in the role, according to the LA
Times.
That would work.
Yeah, but as if he would have done it.
No, he wouldn't have done it.
Absolutely.
He wouldn't work for the Canon group.
Oh, God, no.
So, basically, the Doctor's Orc version was scrapped in favour of a version where Doc
Orc was played by Bob Hoskins.
Yay, of course it was.
And that version, apparently,
where he'd wear, like, a plasticky, rubbery, kind of, torso piece,
and where the arms were all fused horribly
to his skin and whatever.
So that was, they're going to be that version.
So they weren't just, like, kind of drilled in neatly.
They were, like, melted to it.
Great.
Yeah.
And also, this version actually includes this part,
which carried over into...
I think Bob Hoskins was the thing.
Well, Bob Hoskins was a thing?
Well, Bob Hoskins has Alzheimer's and has retired from acting.
Way to bring that up.
Way to make me look like a jerk.
Yeah, well, they were going to do the Roger Rabbit sequel.
They were talking about it for years, and then that happened, so it kind of went by the wayside.
We could get Ron Jeremy, porn star Ron Jeremy.
That's true, yeah.
They're similar enough.
This version, though, includes a bit where Peter Parker discards his glasses because they hinder his eyesight.
You know how that happens in the first Spider-Man?
Correct, it does.
He wakes up and he needs to take them off.
So I guess that one thing carried over.
Isn't that amazing?
That is pretty much...
They got one thing right.
And even then.
Oh, this is interesting as well.
Another version included...
They had a lot of versions, by the way, just with this company.
Included Spider-Man going up against a bat-like scientist turned vampire,
who I assume is Morbius?
Sounds like Morbius.
Though he wasn't named.
And another where Dolph Lundgren is Doc Ock.
Doesn't work at all.
Does it work really well, though?
No.
Oh, yeah.
He's got a...
The 80s Doc Ock's short, fat guy. Dolph Lund yeah. He's got a 80s dog short fat
guy.
Dolph Lundgren.
He's enormous.
Yeah he's a
monster.
Yeah.
Okay.
He might be a
good Venom.
Yeah that's true.
80s Venom.
Yeah.
He'd be a good
80s Punisher
or a He-Man.
Yeah.
Good both of those
things.
You're not going to
believe this but
Stan Lee who loves
everything rejected
all these scripts
wow
but at the same time
pushed for himself
to play Jonah Jameson
yeah he did
yes he did
ah
that's what I was
that's what I've been waiting for
I thought yeah
yeah
I thought you'd be happy with that
ah dear
yeah
do you think at this point
do you think he asks to be in cameos
or do you think they just
they just put him in
it's assumed that he's going to be in it.
Are you against him being in it?
Does it take you out of the film?
Does it take you into the film?
Films.
You know, it's a good yardstick because I can go, oh, there we go.
Stanley's still alive.
Great.
Good.
Does he add anything?
Not really, I don't think.
I think it's nice.
I'm never like, what a dickhead.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm not against it, but if they stop doing it, it's fine.
I mean, he's done so many great things for comics.
He was writing comics when everyone thought comics are for dickheads.
Yep.
And only slightly less people think that now.
Yeah.
So he's carved a real path for nerds everywhere.
That's right.
Good for him.
Yeah.
Okay. He's carved a real path for nerds everywhere. That's right. Good for him. Yeah. Okay, so Albert Pyn, P-Y-U-N, P-Y-U-N.
Doesn't matter.
Probably dead.
Ali P.
Ali P.
Albert P.
Was chosen to direct.
And if you didn't know this, he directed the 1990 Captain America film.
Oh, good.
And the movie...
It was a very small pool of people to draw from.
I'll tell you what...
I guess it was people who were up on charges for various things and they could, you know,
they couldn't get any legit work.
So you're just making it into a terrible superhero film.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um, the movie was to be shot, um, to save money on the same sets that were used for,
that were going to be used for Masters of the Universe 2. Is there much set crossover between a weird, barren, desert future world and New York?
And modern day New York City.
There is zero.
I guess they could do it in the convenience store.
Don't they fight in a convenience store in Masters of the Universe at one point?
Oh, there is a bit, yeah.
They could set it entirely in a convenience store.
Yep.
Yep.
Like phone booth, but in a convenience store.
Correct, yes.
And they could change the origin, so Peter Parker works in a convenience store. Yep. Yep. Like phone booth, but in a convenience store. Correct, yes. And they could change the origin,
so Peter Parker works
in a convenience store,
and...
Dr. Zork is his manager.
Dr. Zork is his manager,
and the Slurpee contains
some sort of mutagen
with a spider in it.
Yep.
Yep.
I would say just a regular spider
goes into a Slurpee,
gets electrocuted.
Great.
What do you think?
I think that totally works.
So, yeah, all this fell through,uted. Great. What do you think? I think that totally works. So yeah,
all this fell through,
obviously.
But the sets were used
that they actually did build
for Pughan's film,
Cyborg.
Oh, with Van Damme.
Yeah.
Is that Cyborg?
Isn't that
Universal Soldier?
No, he did Cyborg as well.
Oh my God.
He did Cyborg
and then Angelina Jolie
did Cyborg 2 or 3, possibly. Really? Yep. Was she the Cyborg? She was the Cyborg. Oh my God. He did Cyborg and then Angelina Jolie did Cyborg 2 or 3, possibly.
Really?
Yep.
Was she the Cyborg?
She was the Cyborg.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
I learned something today.
Well, I didn't think Albert P was going to do anything with his life, but he directed
Cyborg.
There you go.
So this all fell through.
Early 90s, James Cameron was brought on board to shake things up.
Hollywood's James Cameron.
Hollywood's James Cameron. Hollywood's James Cameron.
He was big at the time.
Terminator.
What happened to that kid?
He had a lot of potential, and then he just dropped off the radar.
Yeah, completely.
Well, he was coming off the back of Aliens, Terminator 2,
which I think was coming out around that time.
Yep.
So he was a big name, obviously.
His version involved...
So they dragged him away from building his submarine.
Kicking and screaming. Kicking and screaming, obviously. His version involved sand... So they dragged him away from building his submarine. Kicking and screaming.
Kicking and screaming, yeah.
His version was going to include Sandman.
Sandman? Did I say that right?
Yes. The word Sandman.
You put them together. Now put them together.
Sandman.
Sandy Mandy. Just move on.
And Electro as villains.
So basically, this film it was somewhat adult in nature.
Because it had an aggressive, rebellious Peter Parker.
It gets into erotic adventures.
Well, yeah, pretty much.
Heavy on profanity, but somewhat sexualised scenes.
Like where Peter Parker uses his spider powers to spy on Mary Jane Watson getting changed.
There's actually storyboards of this,
where she's...
It's drawn, obviously, like a storyboard.
She's in a bra.
Yep.
And he's upside down.
Go on.
He's upside down looking through the window,
like, ooh, with that look on his face.
Okay.
So, yeah.
Basically...
But he'd be all...
He'd turn away before.
Well, not in this version, because he's a real kind of creepy kind of... Oh, he's a creepy guy, yeah. Basically, um... But he'd be all... He'd turn away before. Well, not in this version.
Because he's a real kind of creepy kind of...
Oh, he's a creepy guy.
...90s kind of grungy kind of dude, I guess.
Oh, I see.
Right.
So, I'm going to read you a bit from James Cameron's scriptment.
I'm ready.
Which he was paid a lot of money to write.
Probably would have paid for a couple of those torpedo tubes on his submarine.
Right?
Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah, so this is the following scene.
This is an actual scene. I'll read it verbatim. Okay, I'm ready. Okay? I want you to imagine this. Okay, Yeah, so this is the following scene. This is an actual scene.
I'll read it verbatim.
Okay, I'm ready.
Okay?
I want you to imagine this.
Okay, I can do it.
I've imagined things before.
The next day,
and this is assumably
after he was bitten
by a radioactive slurpee.
Yep.
With a spider in it.
Yep.
Tight on Peter Parker
as he wakes up.
Sounds erotic already.
Yeah.
Should I just,
I'll leave you to it.
I'll leave you to it.
Okay.
Go ahead. He opens his eyes cautiously I'll leave you to it. Go ahead.
He opens his eyes cautiously, not knowing what to expect. Pull back to reveal he is
still in bed. All is normal. What a lazy bugger. Continue. He breathes a sigh of relief. In
fact, he feels pretty good. Lots of energy. He pulls back the covers and something is
causing the sheet to stick to him.
He lifts it, revealing a white sticky mass completely covering him,
gluing himself to his bed.
And in the picture of this, it's all his lower half.
Huh.
That's a bit rude.
I don't know why specifically.
I don't understand what that is.
There's something going on there.
It feels a bit rude.
It does, doesn't it?
So this is Peter Parker, right?
Yep.
Another bit.
This is the description of him.
He's age 17.
Yep.
This is a scene description as well.
Peter's in the bathroom, popping zits in the mirror.
Uh-huh.
I don't want to see that movie.
Neither do I.
Exactly.
It's not cool.
It seems unpleasant.
Yeah.
He puts on his glasses and checks himself in the mirror.
Still the same.
Nerdy.
He doesn't care.
Screw him.
He thinks that they're the real losers.
They'll be flipping burgers while he's discovering the cure to cancer.
We'll see who wins in the long run.
He wears his isolation like a badge, with an air of superiority.
That sounds like Peter Parker, doesn't it?
No, it sounds awful.
Just a real prick.
Just a real mean prick, yeah.
Cameron paid to Peter Parker who darker hues than the previous writers. Yeah. real mean prick, yeah. Cameron paid to Peter Parker
who darker hues than the previous writers.
So he's morally ambiguous.
Yeah, that's right.
Morally ambiguous, profane, sadistically violent.
And he gives Peter Parker,
Mary Jane Watson, as a love interest,
but she's like snobbish and up a crust.
And she's got a drunk father,
which actually carried over into the other one.
So yeah, there's another infamous scene.
The last one I'm going to read.
Okay, I'm ready.
This one is dialogue.
Good.
So this is probably my first shot at acting.
Is it two characters?
Yes, but the other one has only one line.
Do you want to do it?
Yeah, I want to do the line.
Okay, it's Mary Jane.
Okay, all right.
You cool with that?
Yes.
This is going to get super awkward, just so you know.
No, I'm okay with that.
Okay.
Okay, Spider-Man.
If anyone in Hollywood
is listening
as well
yeah
oh you're ready
yeah
this is my moment
when Garfield
when Garfield bows out
finally
when his Britishness
catches up with him
and his teeth
just warp out of all proportion
and he just gets so
pale and pallid
that the lights just
they can't pick him up anymore
he turns invisible
we call that
Cumberbatch Syndrome
Spider-Man says this is pick him up anymore. He turns invisible. We call that Cumberbatch Syndrome.
Spider-Man says...
This is all said on top of a bridge, by the way.
Just so we're clear.
Courtship among the spiders is highly ritualised.
It varies from species to
species. The male spider
may circle the female
or wave his front legs to signal
that he is not prey.
He's saying that out loud.
Yep. Great.
Spider-Man moves in a hypnotic arc around her.
He raises his hands in dance-like movements then lowers them.
What do you think so far?
It's a powerfully erotic adventure.
It's great.
Spider-Man then says,
The female usually signals her willingness
by being uncharacteristically passive.
Mary Jane takes a deep breath.
Her lips tremble.
Her knees are weak.
Her eyes gazing at the silhouette before her.
She doesn't move or speak.
He moves closer.
She sounds like she's made poison.
Spider-Man continues.
In certain crab spiders, such as the Ziziscus,
the male will attach strands of silk to the female, tying
her limbs.
And then he does do that, right?
Since the female can break free at any time, the bonds have only symbolic significance.
And then this is your part, right there, where it says Mary Jane.
The male must be very bold to take such liberties with the predatory female.
That was very good.
Thank you.
Yes, he is very bold, but he must also trust her.
He moves in close.
He removes his mask and kisses her.
Their mouths move very slowly and they sensuously devour each other.
Peter and MJ are locked together.
He is mesmerizing, gentle and powerful.
He pushes
up her skirt. They make love high above the world. She doesn't look."
Jesus. So that's...
It's immensely disturbing. Yeah. That's weird, right?
That's the weirdest Cameron... That's the weirdest thing James Cameron's ever done,
surely. Do you think they were just like, here's
three million bucks, just bang something out and he's like, yep, done.
Yeah.
It's just, I don't know what is going on there.
But yeah, wouldn't that have been an amazing movie, in a way?
Yeah, but, ugh, we'd feel bad after it, wouldn't we?
We sure would.
I feel bad now.
There would have been a couple of years where no superhero movies came out after that.
Yeah, well, that's it.
Well, good thing, though, Stan Lee absolutely adored it.
Huh.
And he gave the Cameron directed Spider-Man movie his hearty endorsement.
It was the Spider-Man we all know and love, Lee said, yet it somehow fell fresh and different and new.
Great.
So Lee's on board.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He actually wanted to play Peter Parker.
No.
Also, Cameron came up with the organic web shooters.
What do you think of that?
Which they don't use anymore.
No, that's true, they don't.
That's fine.
Surely he was on the...
People have toyed with that idea before that, surely.
Before the 90s.
They brought it into the comics after they used it in the movies, is that right?
Yes.
Or did it happen before that?
Let me think.
Well, Spider-Man 2099 had him.
Yep.
Pre-movie. Yep. Hang on, let me think. Well, Spider-Man 2099 had him pre-movie.
Yep. Let me think.
No, you know what? I think it was movie first
and then they... No, it was definitely movie
first because what they did is, in the comic book,
they... He had a weird
kind of spider rebirth.
He did, didn't he? Where he was in like a weird
Spider-Man cocoon. Didn't he turn into a spider
and then burst out of a spider?
Then he burst out of a spider and then he had
organic web shooters
and he became stronger.
Yeah.
So he became like movie strong
because he's stronger
in the movies, I think.
Oh, okay.
And he also had the ability
to communicate with spiders,
which they've never mentioned
ever again.
Why would they?
Yeah, exactly.
But they've since
magically retconned that.
Yeah, he's all back
to the way he is.
Do you prefer the
mechanical web shooters
or the organic web shooters?
I prefer the organic ones because, I mean, he's a spider.
Yeah, but would they come out of his wrists?
They'd come out of his butt, obviously, but...
I mean, what?
If he's got spider powers, but he's just got cling to walls and ESP,
it's not really spider powers, is it?
No, not really at all.
You want webs, right?
Yeah, that's true. Spiders don't really have ESP. Yep. It's not really spider powers, is it? No. Yeah. You want webs, right? Yeah.
Well,
that's true.
Yeah.
Spiders don't
really have ESP.
So basically,
the whole of it...
So you can trap
them under a glass.
Is that true?
Yeah.
Oh my god.
You'd put a glass on it?
That ESP,
they'd figure that out,
wouldn't they?
I put that in my video.
I said Spider-Man
in my video this week.
Spider-Man's village
should be a glass jar
and a sheet of paper.
You know what you'd be.
So basically, there's a whole of lego mumbo jumbo
because Columbia owned some of the rights,
MGM owned some of the rights,
but they also owned some of the rights, both of them,
to the Bond franchise.
Because Columbia made that Bond film, that Casino Royale film.
With David Niven.
Yeah, the Spoof one.
Yeah, the Spoof one in the 60s.
So they could have continued
To make Bond films
And so they basically
Came to an agreement
Where Columbia got Spider-Man
MGM got Bond
Done deal
And that was
And that was when
Columbia then created
The highly successful
Spider-Man trilogy
And now in turn
The reboot sequels
That you love
I love them so much
But that's all the story
For another day Mason
Oh boy.
I want you all, I've written this here.
Uh huh.
I want you all at home to imagine me closing a big picture book Shrek style.
Which is what I am doing now.
Nice.
And the back cover's got a big embossed butt on it.
With webs coming out of it.
So that is our podcast for this week.
That was pretty good.
We will talk about all the Spider-Man movies,
probably closer to the release date of The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
So I should probably watch them all.
Nah.
You've seen them all, haven't you?
Except for the reboot.
Yeah, I've seen it.
Do you remember?
Reluctantly.
Yeah.
Because you hate those movies, isn't that right?
Yep.
I hate them and anyone who watches them.
Fair enough.
Alright, we might as well wrap this up.
Next week, do you want to talk about anything?
I'd rather not talk about anything. Let's just make noises. Fair enough. Yep. Alright, we might as well wrap this up. Next week, do you want to talk about anything? I'd rather not talk about anything.
Let's just make noises.
See how that goes.
Do you do any animal impressions?
I can do interpretive dance.
Really?
Yeah.
That'll work well.
I think so.
Yeah.
Cool.
Alright,
so if you'd like to hit us up
on Twitter,
please do so
at Weekly Planet Pod.
That is also the name
of our Facebook page.
You can also hit us up
at Weekly Planet Pod
at Gmail. We've had a lot of suggestions for different shows You can also hit us up at Weekly Planet Pod at Gmail.
We've had a lot of suggestions
for different shows
that we can do
so we've got a bit of stuff
lined up for people.
So if you've got a suggestion,
please shoot it forward.
Oh, question one
somebody had this week.
Do you want to see
any Spider-Man
spin-off movies?
Give me an example.
Venom.
No.
That's it?
Oh, no, you know what?
I would kind of like
to see Flash Thompson as Venom.
Yes.
As like Agent Venom.
Yep.
But how do you get there?
Yeah, how do you get there?
Because you need to introduce him.
You need to have a likeable Flash Thompson.
Then you need to have...
There is a Flash Thompson in The Amazing Spider-Man.
Is he a dickhead?
Yeah, he's a dickhead.
Oh, then...
But they have a kind of a moment.
Oh, okay, so he's redeemed.
Yeah, a little bit.
But yeah, he's not into that much.
What else would I like to see? What about a spider girl a moment. Oh, okay, so he's redeemed. Yeah, a little bit. But yeah, he's not into that much. What else would I like to see?
What about a Spider-Girl?
Woman?
Yeah, fine.
What about Spider-Man 2099?
I'd say that.
I would definitely say that.
Yeah, that would be really good.
Boy, I'd like to see a J. Jonah Jameson movie.
But it's just J.K. Simmons from the original ones,
and it's just him yelling.
I'd say that.
It never leaves his office,
and just a series of, like, weird...
Like, employees come in, and they've got problems for him,
and he just yells at them creatively.
And then they leave, and then, like, more weirdness happens.
And maybe occasionally you see past his head,
like, in the windows behind him,
you see, like, the Green Goblin and, like, explosions
and he's fighting Spider-Man, but it's never referred to.
And he never turns around because he's not interested.
He's just interested in yelling at people.
That would be the best.
Yeah, I'm too.
Did you just think of that?
Yes, I did.
That's great.
Do you think it would be uncool?
Because none of the actors have come back from the last Spider-Man movie,
except for Stan Lee.
Actually, I don't think he's got a cameo.
Do you think it would be cool to get that same actor as J. Jonah Jameson back in?
Yes.
Who do they have in the...
Nobody at the moment.
Yeah, bring him back.
I would love to see him back.
He's great.
He's the best one.
He's probably the best part of those movies.
He's the most accurate to the comic books of any character ever, I think.
And he's over the top, but in a believable kind of way.
Because I've worked with people who are similar-ish to that, I guess, in a way.
Yeah.
Just lunatics in charge.
You know? Yeah. Yeah. Your lunatics in charge. You know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Your Twitter is Wikipedia Brown,
is that right?
That is correct.
Mine is MrSundayMovies.
Please hit us up with any information
you would like to say to us.
Just positive stuff, though.
Just positive.
Or really negative.
If it's really negative,
I'm totally on board.
I was still going to say, though,
we have...
It's all pretty much positive.
Love it.
Yeah, which is great.
So, we appreciate all we appreciate people are very kind
they are
yeah
surprisingly considering
we're absolute fucking idiots
I think we're
I think they've been
tricked by the accent
I don't want to pull back
the curtain
but they're not
aware that we're idiots
because of the accent
okay
we seem laid back
yeah
but it's just we're idiots
yeah
good
great
let's keep it up
yeah
see you next week
I'm gonna eat this paste
good nom nom nom nom nom nom bye everyone bye Good. Great. Let's keep it up. Yeah. See you next week. I'm going to eat this paste.
Good.
Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom.
Bye, everyone.
Bye.
As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors,
like high blood pressure developed during pregnancy,
which can put us two times more at risk of heart disease or stroke. Know your risks.
Visit heartandstroke.ca.
risk of heart disease or stroke.
Know your risks.
Visit heartandstroke.ca.
FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women
who play a deadly game of truth and lies
on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London.
One woman has a secret,
the other a mission to reveal it
before thousands of lives are lost.
FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.