After this year’s Kraven the Hunter and Sony giving up on its Spider-Man-less Spider-Man Cinematic Universe, you may be surprised to learn that there was a fan film directed and written by Bruce Cardozo that was approved by Stan Lee.

Based on The Amazing Spider-Man #15, this all started with Cardozo writing to Lee and explaining the project. He received a very enthusiastic letter of approval — this would never happen today, least of all because Stan Lee is dead and it would be strange to get a letter back from him — saying that as long as the movie only played non-cmmercially, Cardozo could make it.

His experimental film class listened to his idea for a 16mm shot half-hour semi-professional Spider-Man and they thought it was impossible. Then, Cardozo created the  scenario, production direction and special effects while classmates Daphne Stevens and Marilyn Hecht sewed the costumes, Richard Eberhardt created the visual look — and played Spider-Man — and Art Schweitzer created the lighting effects which were to make this short stand out.

Sadly, we never see this. Cardozo, who eventually worked on The Avengers, Captain America and Thor, as well as Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Robot Jox and Superman IV died in 2015 and the computer that had the movie on it was destroyed. According to the Lost Media Wiki, this played in public just a few times, with “the final showings being at the Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles in 2002 and 2005 at the Shrine Expo Hall.”

In that same article, it comes to light that the film was nearly stolen at one point by burglars who knew the value of the only print. Supposedly, “Cardozo had relocated to New Jersey and at that time, he entrusted the prints to his mother for safekeeping.”

I’d love to see this, particularly to see how the team handled the traveling matte effects of Spider-Man swinging across a neon New York. Keep in mind this was being made years before you could “believe a man could fly” when Superman was released in 1978.