You all know about the first three Spider-Man movies, and the subsequent two reboots. But there were efforts to make a Spider-Man movie looooong before the first one came out in 2002. We're talking the 1980s here.
Long before Sony acquired the rights to Spider-Man, a studio called Cannon did. This is the same studio responsible for Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (aka, Nuclear Weapons Are Responsible For All Evil), so you get the drift of what we're dealing with.
Anyway, the first draft involved photographer Peter Parker going to the Zyrex corporation, getting bathed in radioactive waves, and becoming a half-human half-spider hybrid. Yeah, it's obvious why this one didn't fly.
Later drafts were more about the web-slinger we all know and love. The villian of the first few drafts was Doctor Octopus, possible star of multiple Spider-Man based hentai comics and future Spider-Man. His origin was intertwined with Spidey's; the accident that made Peter Parker into Spider-Man turned Doctor Otto Octavious into Doctor Octopus. And rather than have the good Doctor (not Matt Smith or David Tennant) become obsessed with taking over the world (OF COURSE!), he wanted to continue the project that grafted those tentacles onto him. This is similar to the approach taken in Spider-Man 2 in regards to the character. Later drafts would add an underling to Otto called Weiner who ends up killing Uncle Ben.
Even later drafts would make up villains - like a Morbius ripoff called Night Ghoul, or a parapalegic doctor who becomes a Scorpion knockoof - and add concepts such as a drug called T-Devil that gives the user superhuman powers for 24 hours, then kills them; an R-Rated story; and having Peter truly become Spider-Man by the end of the movie.
By the way, all of these drafts, as far as I know, have Peter making his webshooters instead of using organic webbing.
James Cameron delivered a draft at one point, but I'll get into that next time. Why? Because I felt like ending on a cliffhanger of sorts. This isn't a cliffhanger, you say. Fine. I'M PREGNANT.
Tune in next time to see what happens next!