12 Directors You Didn't Know Almost Made Comic Book Movies

2. James Cameron - Spider-Man

In the early 1990s, James Cameron planned to adapt Spider-Man into a movie, having been a lifelong fan of the character. He wrote a large treatment that was later adapted into a script, with many of its elements actually making it into the 2002 Sam Raimi movie.

However, Cameron's general plot was deemed too dark and would've required both an R-rating and a budget far higher than the $50 million production company Carolco was prepared to give him. Also, bizarre casting choices such as Arnold Schwarzenegger (Doc Ock), Edward Furlong (Peter Parker) and Leonardo DiCaprio (Harry Osborn) seem nothing short of baffling in retrospect.

Carolco collapsed by the mid-1990s after Cutthroat Island's failure, essentially killing the film, and Cameron moved onto the biggest financial success of his career with Titanic.

Would It Have Worked?: If history has taught us anything, it's that you should never, ever bet against this man. Industry "experts" said the over-budget, over-schedule Titanic wouldn't make a dime, and that Avatar's "blue cat people" weren't marketable, so compared to all that, selling Arnie as Doc Ock would've been an absolute cakewalk.