pider-Man (2002 film) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigationJump to search Spider-Man Spider-Man in his suit crawling over a building and looking towards the viewer. Below of him is New York City, the film's title, credits, and release date. Theatrical release poster Directed by Sam Raimi Screenplay by David Koepp Based on Spider-Man by Stan Lee Steve Ditko Produced by Laura Ziskin Ian Bryce Starring Tobey Maguire Willem Dafoe Kirsten Dunst James Franco Cliff Robertson Rosemary Harris Cinematography Don Burgess Edited by Bob Murawski Arthur Coburn Music by Danny Elfman Production companies Columbia Pictures Marvel Enterprises Laura Ziskin Productions Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing Release date April 29, 2002 (Mann Village Theater) May 3, 2002 (United States) Running time 121 minutes Country United States Language English Budget $139 million Box office $821.7 million Spider-Man is a 2002 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Directed by Sam Raimi from a screenplay by David Koepp, it is the first installment in the Spider-Man trilogy, and stars Tobey Maguire as the titular character, alongside Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, and Rosemary Harris. The film centers on outcast teen genius Peter Parker who develops spider-like superhuman abilities after being bitten by a genetically-altered spider and decides to use his newfound powers to fight crime as Spider-Man. Development on a live-action Spider-Man film began in the 1980s. Filmmakers Tobe Hooper, James Cameron, and Joseph Zito were all attached to direct the film at one point. However, the project would languish in development hell due to licensing and financial issues. After progress on the film stalled for nearly 25 years, it was licensed for a worldwide release by Columbia Pictures in 1999 after it acquired options from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on all previous scripts developed by Cannon Films, Carolco, and New Cannon. Exercising its option on just two elements from the multi-script acquisition (a different screenplay was written by James Cameron, Ted Newsom, John Brancato, Barney Cohen, and Joseph Goldman), Sony hired Koepp to create a working screenplay (credited as Cameron's), and Koepp received sole credit in final billing. Directors Roland Emmerich, Tim Burton, Ang Lee, Chris Columbus, Barry Sonnenfeld, Michael Bay, Jan de Bont, M. Night Shyamalan, Tony Scott, 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 pre-production and received a dialogue polish from Alvin Sargent during production. Filming took place in Los Angeles and New York City from January to June 2001. Sony Pictures Imageworks handled the film's visual effec