The Spider-Man

The Spider-Man was the planned first installment in the fan version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) dubbed the Marvel Cinematic Fanverse (MCF).

There were plans for a fan film of the character towards the end of 2016 with many plot ideas being considered as well as numerous classic Spider-Man villains before work on the script began with the story that was selected. Moore was instantly cast as the lead role due to his love of the character and similarities as well as also serving as the writer and director on the project. Around January 2017, the title was settled on “The Spider-Man”. Principal photography is scheduled to start around June 2017, to coincide with the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Development
The idea of creating a small fan film had been in Moore’s mind since 2007. He stated “I had tried multiple times to make a small movie with friends but they never happened. I tried making a horror movie, Vietnam War, Second World War, modern war, sci-fi and even a zombie movie. They all got to completed scripts but people would toy with me, saying they were 100% interested but were thinking ‘I’m not interested at all I’m just humouring him’ which wasn’t very nice from people I called my friends”. After getting into cosplaying and joining a Spider-Man cosplay group on Facebook in 2015, the idea of making a small movie returned to Moore following on from seeing the efforts made by other members in the group. Moore went through several different story concepts involving various characters and focusing on different versions of Spider-Man with one script idea being of Peter dealing with life immediately following the events of Captain America: Civil War but he realised this wouldn’t work as he had no idea what would happen in the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming and how the character would be treated after the world knowing about his involvement. He then decided to try and come up with an original story that tapped into the mythos of the character and drew inspiration from various different Spider-Man stories.

In late 2016, Moore began working on the script which at the time was simply titled “Spider-Man”. He decided to set it in the years following the death of Gwen Stacy with Peter still haunted by what happened while in a happy relationship with Mary Jane Watson however one thing he hadn’t figured out was who would be the villain. Moore met with his friend Jordan Lightstone at a small comic con the pair were supporters of and spoke about what he had planned and wanted him to be involved. Through this initial talk and subsequent talks, Moore was able to create the villain Mortes and the extra two characters Vidas and Limbo. “The name Mortes sounded awesome and very villainous and then the idea came to me that he would represent death but this meant he was out of balance and so I created Vidas and Limbo to represent life and the in between respectively as a means to balance him out” Moore stated when asked about the villain. It was during his talk with Lightstone about his plans that Moore settled upon the title of The Spider-Man, the title he thought would be given to the MCU’s reboot of the character before it was revealed to be Spider-Man: Homecoming however he also said that any subsequent Spider-Man movies would adopt a subtitle in the same way the Captain America movies did.

Pre-Production
Almost immediately after coming up with the idea of making a Spider-Man fan film, Moore was cast in the titular role; "most of my friends agreed if anyone was qualified enough to play Spider-Man it was me so there was not a lot of thought in that. I also just didn't want anyone wearing my suit". Moore proceeded to cast more characters with casting director Elijha-Adams Collorick's help while he was still writing the script which he said helped him write the parts as he then knew what the actors were capable of. On January 15th Lewis Mackenzie, Georgia Haines and Jordan Lighstone were announced as Punisher, Black Widow and Mortes respectively. Further cast announcements were made on January 30th with Sam Manton, Ryan "Razz" Berry and Charlotte Elizzabeth cast as Fancy Dan, Agent Venom and Mary Jane Watson respectively, however Razz's role was changed to Wonder Man on June 5th, followed by the addition of Logan Moore as Harry Osborn and Nathan Osell as Beast to the cast on February 17th. Harrison Liddell became the second member of The Enforcers, Ox, on February 23rd but dropped out and was replaced by Tom Carr on July 31st. The toughest casting decision came with JARVIS, after auditioning Richard Mark Milne and Adam Warner for the role but ultimately selecting and announcing Mark Milne as the character on February 23rd. Warner later auditioned and was successful in landing the role of Otto Octavius the following month along with Jonathan "Jono" Pomeyie as Nick Fury. After multiple delays, the role of J Jonah Jameson was eventually filled by Nathan's father Neil who caught Moore's eye as Old Man Logan at a local comic con. Work on the script continued gradually as auditions were planned. On the 6th March, the first teaser trailer was uploaded to the Facebook page to positive reactions, the best of which came from Haines who quoted a line from Grease. The roles of Vidas and Limbo, important characters for the development of Mortes, were filled by Laurenie Smith and Nneoma Ukandu respectively on April 26th with the role they were originally competing for, Betty Brant, being given to Amanda Blockley on May 10th with the final and possibly the hardest casting being of Montana going to Matt Winter on May 16th however Winter dropped out and was replaced by Dave O'Connor on July 31st. O'Connor had originally played an unnamed thug for the opening scene but expressed interest in taking on a larger role. A week before Blockley's casting, Moore confirmed on the Facebook page that a location in Cheltenham had been found for Peter and Mary Jane's apartment. On May 15th, Moore announced that the script was officially finished with any further edits to be done on set where it is necessary via written or improvisation.

Production
Principal photography began on July 1st. The day before the filming, Moore rewrote the scene to better suit the situation, removing a car that was in the original draft due to difficulty obtaining one and adding in a brief appearance from Peter Parker. Jordan Lightstone, Lewis Mackenzie Dave O'Connor and Adam Warner took on minor roles of unnamed thugs in disguise. Moore confirmed this sequence to be the sneak peek that would be unveiled at an event he was attending and co-hosting. "The MCU has D23 and San Diego Comic Con to unveil new footage and sneak peeks so we have our own version to unveil it." Moore finally released the sneak peek footage on August 5th. The second day of filming came on the 13th July however this was smaller in scale by comparison with most of the scenes featuring Peter/Spider-Man and Mary Jane including one scene that had a mixture of feelings amongst the cast and crew. "What was so funny about it all was how uncertain and nervous a guy like Ryan, who dresses as Spidey in public, was about it all" laughed Lightstone. "He constantly said it was important to the story and when you read the script you can see that it certainly has significance with the final act."

Cancellation
On December 21st 2017, Moore announced that The Spider-Man would be scrapped. "There was just too much left of the movie that needed to be done and we were losing both cast members and locations rather rapidly" explains Moore. "We also lacked quite a bit of planning and reading back through the story I felt it was a bit on the weak side so this is a chance to start from scratch and do things properly". Moore has stated they will probably come back to the project through rewrites and alterations as well as keeping the footage that was already filmed.

Easter Eggs
It was obvious from the beginning that the project would feature multiple Easter Eggs to the Marvel universe as well as to other properties the cast and crew were fans of and the personalities of the actors also brought into the characters they played. Moore promised that there would be a reference to Stan Lee in the form of a picture akin to his appearance in the Netflix show Daredevil. "I won't reveal where these Easter Eggs are but they are there and they're a mix of right in your face, stealing the scene in the back or blink and you'll miss it, we have a real variety of references to the Marvel comics universe, the MCU, past Spider-Man movies and others".

Sequels and Tie Ins
Moore made it apparent from the very beginning that he wanted to have his own version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe he dubbed the Marvel Cinematic Fanverse or MCF, a series of fan made movies based on the Marvel universe that would look at some lesser known characters and teams. Assistant director, Elijha-Adams Collorick, made plans for a Young Avengers tie-in movie featuring recent Marvel characters like Kamal Khan's Ms Marvel and an appearance from Spider-Man, Razz Berry also expressed interest in a tie-in Agent Venom movie but these changed to Wonder Man when his role in The Spider-Man changed and Lewis Mackenzie discussed the possibility of a Punisher movie within the MCF touching upon his tragic backstory.