3. James Cameron's Spider-Man
What Could Have Been: There had been numerous attempts to get a live-action Spider-Man movie made, with various budget concerns and rights issues keeping the project firmly in development hell. In the early 1990s James Cameron submitted a 47 page treatment, with Carolco Pictures making an official announcement in 1993. Rumors swirled that the director was eying Michael Biehn for Peter Parker and Arnold Schwarzenegger for Doctor Octopus, but budgetary issues soon saw the project put on hold. Cameron's outline is readily available online, and it is a very strange thing indeed; an origin story that features retconned versions of Electro and Sandman as villains. Oh, and with heavy use of profanity and a sex scene on top of the Brooklyn Bridge.
What We Got Instead: After the collapse of the project, the rights issues became even more complicated and it was a decade later before Spider-Man finally went into production with Sam Raimi at the helm. The result was a solid first chapter that delivers strong performances from the cast and several thrilling moments, although the Green Goblin costume remains ridiculous. Of course, being a movie that is based on one of the most beloved characters in pop culture Spider-Man was a massive commercial success, grossing $821.7m worldwide.
The Verdict: If you've read the James Cameron treatment (and a lot of people have), then it's probably for the best that his version never made it past the development stage. Sure, he's one of the greatest action directors of all time so the set-pieces would no doubt have been incredible, but as a writer he's not the greatest and there are some pretty weird things in there. Raimi's $2.5bn-grossing trilogy went on to deliver one of the best superhero sequels ever... and Spider-Man 3.