Michael Chabon's Spider-man 2

[Smit84]

This is kind of old but I'm curious what other poeple think of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI_v2Q0-ai8

I'd love to be able to read Chabon's draft and I wonder why they didn't use it.

 

[The Joker]

If this guy is responsible for having Spider-Man 2 cut out Black Cat and The Lizard, then a big THANK YOU to him.

And, I couldn't agree more with his comments on Black Cat. I don't know what Raimi's fascination is with that character. She's terrible.

 

[Green Goblin 1964]

If this guy is responsible for having Spider-Man 2 cut out Black Cat and The Lizard, then a big THANK YOU to him.

And, I couldn't agree more with his comments on Black Cat. I don't know what Raimi's fascination is with that character. She's terrible.

Damn right. Black Cat is a total knockoff of Catwoman for sure

 

[Leenie]

If this guy is responsible for having Spider-Man 2 cut out Black Cat and The Lizard, then a big THANK YOU to him.

And, I couldn't agree more with his comments on Black Cat. I don't know what Raimi's fascination is with that character. She's terrible.

I agree completely.

 

[Blader5489]

If this guy is responsible for having Spider-Man 2 cut out Black Cat and The Lizard, then a big THANK YOU to him.

Actually, believe it or not, but it was Avi Arad who was responsible for rejecting those ideas, and creating the Doc Ock and Harry we saw in the final cut.

Chabon didn't come on board until months later. In the video, he's probably referring to how his approach differed from Gough and Millar's (i.e. only using Spider-Man and Doc Ock).

 

[Smit84]

Actually, believe it or not, but it was Avi Arad who was responsible for rejecting those ideas, and creating the Doc Ock and Harry we saw in the final cut.

Chabon didn't come on board until months later. In the video, he's probably referring to how his approach differed from Gough and Millar's (i.e. only using Spider-Man and Doc Ock).

Although in one interview Raimi said it was Arad's initial idea to have multiple villains. I think the Lizard and Harry as the Green Goblin probably didn't make it past David Koepp's first draft and even then probably only showed up near the end. (note how Chabon wasn't completely sure the Lizard was in it or not). Black Cat remained through Gough & Millar's draft. My guess is Gough & Millar wrote the script with Doc Ock as a young man who has a thing for Mary Jane which Arad didn't like.

 

[The Shredder]

Yeah, the whole idea of there being some "love triangle" between Ock (a young attractive Ock I take it), Peter, and Mary Jane just doesnt really do it for me. Black Cat getting cut definately worked more in Spidey 2 favor, than against it.

 

[Spoarz™]

Yeah, the whole idea of there being some "love triangle" between Ock (a young attractive Ock I take it), Peter, and Mary Jane just doesnt really do it for me. Black Cat getting cut definately worked more in Spidey 2 favor, than against it.

I really dislike the idea of the love triangle between Doc Ock, MJ & Peter. I'm so glad they scrapped that idea.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

I really dislike the idea of the love triangle between Doc Ock, MJ & Peter. I'm so glad they scrapped that idea.

Agreed, that would have been a horrible choice for the film.

 

[Mr Jide]

So, essentially, multiple villains is good because, dam the story but hey we get to sell a whole load of toys and make a bundle off of these snot-nosed kids??? F***ers. This news about a fresh take is/was very much needed.

 

[The Joker]

You really have to wonder what the heck they were smoking when they entertained the idea of a love triangle between Peter, MJ, and Ock.

 

[fabman]

Well, it's easy. It's f'ing Gough and Millar, the 'Smallville' guys. I enjoyed the first two, or maybe even three seasons, but recent stuff is craptastic.

 

[Blader5489]

Yeah, seriously. And there are about a dozen love triangles in Smallville, from what I recall.

 

[Smit84]

Well, it's easy. It's f'ing Gough and Millar, the 'Smallville' guys. I enjoyed the first two, or maybe even three seasons, but recent stuff is craptastic.

Exactly. Granted no one has said it was their storyline but if that doesn't scream "Smallville Writers" I don't know what does. I've heard that the only thing from their draft (original ideas anyway) that made the final draft was Doc Ock's inhibitor chip. That's another Smallville-ish plot point. "Yeah I have mechanical arms with ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGANCE and I'm safe so long as this tiny little chip doesn't break--whoops!" It's like kryptonite giving people superpowers.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

A love triangle? MJ, Pete and Doc Ock? Thank god that didn't happen.

 

[TheVileOne]

No disrespect, but I was never really keen on Gough and Miller doing this movie or Iron Man for that matter. I think Raimi felt the same way when he heard that they were writing it from a reporter. It was really Sony's idea to get them, not Raimi's.

Either way, smarter heads prevailed and we got a much stronger movie as a result. Sticking with only a single villain was the right way to go. The third movie just wasn't as strong, even at almost 2 and a half hours and a lot more crammed in.

These movies work better when there is a more central group of characters to focus on.

 

[Spider-Jay]

These movies work better when there is a more central group of characters to focus on.

I totally agree. Well said.

 

[Knightsaber Priss]

If this guy is responsible for having Spider-Man 2 cut out Black Cat and The Lizard, then a big THANK YOU to him.

And, I couldn't agree more with his comments on Black Cat. I don't know what Raimi's fascination is with that character. She's terrible.

My guess would be because of the Boobies.

P.S. I want to give Chabon a hug and a kiss for calling Black Cat what she is (And I've said this many times already myself in these forums.) that she's a Marvel knock off of Catwoman.

 

[The Joker]

My guess would be because of the Boobies.

P.S. I want to give Chabon a hug and a kiss for calling Black Cat what she is (And I've said this many times already myself in these forums.) that she's a Marvel knock off of Catwoman.

Agreed on both counts.

Especially about the boobies

 

[Knightsaber Priss]

Agreed on both counts.

Especially about the boobies

Not that I'd know all about the pleasure of boobies anyways. I'm more into man cleavage if you get my drift.

 

[UltimateJustin]

I wonder first how anyone could ever have attempted to script those particular villians into one story and second how Spiderman 2 ever became the good movie it is. Black Cat is embarressing. I know the suits think that more villains mean more toys sold, but I wonder if thats the case with SM-3, it did give them bigger returns overseas but it had a weaker domestic take, so there goes the theory that more villians mean more ticket sales in the States. We arent as stupid as everyone thinks, yay.

 

[TheVileOne]

Well Raimi and co. had good insight in bringing on Chabon after the Smallville guys did their disappointing take. Remember it was Sony that wanted Gough and Millar, not Raimi.

 

[UltimateJustin]

Well Raimi and co. had good insight in bringing on Chabon after the Smallville guys did their disappointing take. Remember it was Sony that wanted Gough and Millar, not Raimi.

I was a Smallville fan but stopped watching in season two after too much stupid cave stuff. Its just weird to me how one script can go from trashstyle to dopestyle and we just have to hope we get lucky and the last person who touched it was the talented one. I'm a Raimi fan mostly, though he crossed a few lines on SM-3, I just wish he had taken the length of time it would have required to fix the problems in SM-3 (about the length of a lunch break) so we could have gotten a better, more poignant movie.

 

[Smit84]

I wonder first how anyone could ever have attempted to script those particular villians into one story and second how Spiderman 2 ever became the good movie it is. Black Cat is embarressing. I know the suits think that more villains mean more toys sold, but I wonder if thats the case with SM-3, it did give them bigger returns overseas but it had a weaker domestic take, so there goes the theory that more villians mean more ticket sales in the States. We arent as stupid as everyone thinks, yay.

My guess is that the Lizard and Harry-Goblin probably had the Venom treatment in the drafts they appeared in (only showing up towards the end). In fact I feel like there was rumors/speculation Lizard would be a minor villain or a cliffhanger. I do remember Dunst spilling the beans that Doc Ock and the Lizard would be the villains of Spider-man 2 before Spider-man 1 even opened.

And it seems I owe Gough & Millar an apology. I found a scan of an article that was written where they claim the Peter/MJ/John Jameson triangle and Doc Ock's entire arc (including the inhibitor chip and his wife Rosie) originated in their draft. Basically they were argueing that their draft had the backbone of the story that was used (and therefore should have gotten a "screenplay" credit). Still, I do know for certain they had Black Cat in their script as well.

 

[batman strikes]

So all the stuff about Doc Ock being a young man and him wanting Mary Jane wasn't in Gough and Millar's draft?