For years, fans have been fascinated by Avatar director James Cameron’s scrapped plans for a Spider-Man movie. Despite it never really getting off the ground, we do know that it would have featured Electro and Sandman as the main villains, while Arnold Schwarzenegger was expected to show up as Otto Octavius. Based on the leaked “scriptment” which has done the rounds online though, this wouldn’t have actually been a very faithful adaptation, and the movie would have even included a sex scene with Peter Parker and Mary Jane together on the Brooklyn Bridge.
It’s also been said that The Revenant star Leonardo DiCaprio was wanted by Cameron for the role of Spider-Man, but just how much truth was there to those reports?
In a recent interview with Empire Magazine, the actor was asked just how close he came to taking on the role of the iconic wall-crawler in this adaptation. “Not very close, but there was a screenplay,” he confirmed. “I know he was semi-serious about doing it at some point, but I don’t remember any further talks about it. We had a couple of chats. I think there was a screenplay that I read, but I don’t remember. This was 20 years ago!”
As for how much he believes taking on the role of Spider-Man would have changed his career, DiCaprio added: “I’m not sure anything would have changed.”
Fair enough! The actor has yet to take on a leading role in a superhero movie and recently admitted to turning down key roles in both Batman Forever and the Star Wars prequels. Whether Marvel or DC will ever be able to convince him to join one of their movies remains to be seen, but the chance for him to play Spidey has come and gone…
