‘Spider-Man’ at 20: How Sam Raimi and Sony Pictures Rescued the Superhero Genre and Changed Hollywood Forever
Sam Raimi stepped into the offices of Sony Pictures in an impeccable black suit to pitch himself to direct “Spider-Man.” He had no reason to expect he would get the job.“My agent, Josh Donen, said, ‘They want to be honest with you. There’s about 18 directors they’d rather have than you on a list,'” Raimi recalls. “And I said, ‘OK, well, tell them I’m number 19.'”When Raimi finally did get a meeting, he found himself in a room that included Sony Pictures CEO John Calley, Columbia Pictures chair Amy Pascal, Marvel Studios chief Avi Arad, Sony film executive Matt Tolmach and the film’s producer, Laura Ziskin.