Hard to now, but there was a lot of skepticism about the first "Spider-Man" movie before it came out 15 years ago this week (on May 3, 2002).

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Yet it all somehow worked, breaking records on its opening weekend, launching a lucrative franchise, and making bankable A-listers out of Maguire, co-star Never Say Never Again").

2. While the lawyers were trying to unsnarl the legal webs, writers drafted several Spidey screenplays that never got made. One of the more bizarre efforts was a script more like "The Fly" than a superhero story, with a mad scientist subjecting Peter Parker to radiation experiments that transformed him into an eight-limbed freak, a violent human tarantula.

3. Another early script outline came from no less than James Cameron, who envisioned a story pitting Spider-Man against Electro and Sandman (villains who'd eventually find their way into later Spider-movies). 4. Cameron also came up with the idea of making Spider-Man's webs organic, rather than synthetic creations shot from a device worn on his wrist. A storyboard for what the filmmaker had planned can be seen above.

5. Eventually, the job of writing the "Spider-Man" screenplay went to "David Koepp. He kept Cameron's organic-web concept, among other ideas, but changed the villains to Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus. Eventually, he decided that the daddy issues at play in the Goblin storyline were interesting enough to drop Doc Ock.

6. Two other script doctors polished Koepp's work; one was two-time-Oscar-winner David Fincher.

8. Fincher ultimately ed on the gig because he didn't want to do an origin story; rather, he wanted to do the tragic Gwen Stacy storyline that would eventually inform The Cider House Rules" and was sure he could capture Peter Parker's insecurity and decency.

10. Also auditioning to play the lead were Franco, who ultimately landed the role of Peter's pal Harry Osborn instead, and John Travolta all said "no."

13. Maguire spent months buffing up and working with a physical trainer, a yoga teacher, a martial-arts master, and a climbing instructor. He also studied the movements of spiders in order to imitate them.
14. In a way, all the legal delays were fortunate, since a lot of the movie's stunts would have been impossible in the days when CGI was still primitive or non-existent. Sony suits found test shots of Spider-Man crawling up the side of a building so convincing that they thought they were seeing actual footage of Maguire in costume.

15. Producer Saving Private Ryan."
16. Raimi tried to shoot on real New York locations whenever possible, but most of the big action set-pieces -- including the Goblin's attacks on Times Square and the Queensboro Bridge (above) -- were shot primarily on Hollywood sets with computer-generated cityscapes added later.

17. Dafoe's Goblin costume bedeviled the filmmakers. It consisted of 580 pieces and took half an hour to put on, but Dafoe insisted on wearing it whenever possible instead of dressing a stunt double in it. Also, its green color meant it had to be filmed in front of a blue screen during effects shots, while Maguire's blue and red costume had to be shot against a green screen. So the two actors had to have their effects shots done separately, even in scenes where they appeared together.
18. The iconic upside-down kiss scene was shot on the New York street set of the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank.

19. During construction of a "Spider-Man" set in Hollywood, welder Tim Holcombe was killed in an accident involving a tumbling forklift. The studio was fined $59,000 for workplace safety violations.
20. The obligatory X-Men.'" But the scene was trimmed.

21. Speaking of "X-Men," Hugh Jackman's Wolverine was also supposed to have a cameo. But Sony and "X-Men" studio 20th Century Fox tussled over rights issues, and the appearance didn't happen.
22. "Spider-Man" was one of the first films forced to make changes in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The film's first teaser featured a scene especially shot for the ad, in which Spidey traps a helicopter full of thieves in a giant web suspended between the World Trade Center towers. That teaser trailer had to be scrapped. Also, images of the Twin Towers had to be airbrushed out of the posters and digitally erased from the film.

23. "Spider-Man" cost a reported $139 million to make. When it premiered, it became the first movie ever to cross the $100 million mark its first weekend, debuting with a record $114.8 million. It would go on to earn $403.7 million in North America, making it the biggest hit of 2002. Worldwide, it grossed $821.7 million.
24. With Captain America: Civil War," the original Peter Parker called his successor's performance "great."