Spider-Man

Directed by Sam Raimi
Produced by Laura Ziskin, Ian Bryce, Grant Curtis, Avi Arad, Stan Lee
Screenplay by David Koepp
Based on Characters by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko
Starring Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, Rosemary Harris
Music by Danny Elfman
Cinematography Don Burgess
Editing by Arthur Coburn, Bob Murawski
Studio Marvel Enterprises, Laura Ziskin Productions
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) May 3, 2002
Running time 121 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $140 million
Box office $821,708,551
Spider-Man is a 2002 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi and written by David Koepp. Based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, the film stars Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, a high-school student who turns to crimefighting after developing spider like powers. Spider-Man also stars Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn (a.k.a. the Green Goblin), Kirsten Dunst as Peter's love interest Mary-Jane Watson, and James Franco as his best friend Harry Osborn.
After being stuck in development hell for nearly 25 years, the film was licensed for a worldwide release by Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1999 after it acquired options from M-G-M on all previous scripts developed by Cannon Films, Carolco and New Cannon. Exercising its option on just two elements from this multi-script acquisition (a screenplay credited to James Cameron, Ted Newsom, John Brancato, Barney Cohen and "Joseph Goldman" (pen name of Menahem Golan) and a later treatment credited solely to Cameron), Sony hired David Koepp to create a working screenplay from this "Cameron material." Directors Roland Emmerich, Tim Burton, Chris Columbus, and David Fincher were considered to direct the project before Raimi was hired as director in 2000. The Koepp script was rewritten by Scott Rosenberg during preproduction and received a dialogue polish from Alvin Sargent during production.