Spider-Man versus Kraven the Hunter (1974 fan film)
Dec 23, 2021 22:11:18 GMT
awesomereesee, tussockythree68, and 2 more like this
Post by Fudgebudger on Dec 23, 2021 22:11:18 GMT
Hi everybody, I've been searching for this one for nearly a decade now on and off- I created the Lost Media Wiki page for it last year, too. I'm happy to see it getting some more interest lately with things like Lost Media Mike's video last week. This one seems kind of like a no-brainer to me, wish there was more fervor behind finding it but more people aware about it at all is a good step at least. I mean, it's a semi-professional Spider-Man movie from nearly 50 years old that's lost. I think early fan films are really interesting because it's the fans themselves making exactly what they want to see before there was the deluge of big budget adaptations we have today.
Just in the last week we've got four color stills for the first time from the project. I'm not certain, but I feel like it might have been spurred on by the Lost Media Mike video and someone else getting in contact with the person behind the Homemade Hollywood novel as the Facebook page for Homemade Hollywood uploaded a color still referencing the video. They mention the still showed up (in black and white) published in their book. I ordered a copy as I want to find out what it has to say on the supposedly crazy production, just the tidbit they share in the post alone is pretty wild with Tommy Ramone working on it. Looking forward to reading that as it has some interviews with the director from the late 2000s.
For the longest time I had thought there were no bootlegs of this floating around but I've seen rumblings to the contrary lately. One of the family members to A Andrew Pastorio (who played J. Jonah Jameson in the project) mentioned that in the early 2000s they saw a copy on an Italian bootleg site and regret not buying it then as their family wants to see it again. They also said they watched it in their grandparents home as kids since their grandfather was in it but they don't think they have a copy still.
I saw someone comment on the Lost Media Mike video that they actually saw it in the late 1980s on a bootleg compilation tape that also had "The Empire Strikes Quack" on it. They could be blowing smoke but that detail is what sells it for me as Empire Strikes Quack bit, as that is something that would have been circulating at the time. The person went on to say they never owned the tape but the person that did is a VHS collector that had lots of rare things but is a "creepy hermit." See, this lost media story even has creepy VHS hermits now! All the right ingredients! If the VHS person is out there, I'd like to talk to them.
I've reached out to NYU's preservation department (the college the student film was made for) to see if they would have a copy anywhere in their archives. A film school graduate buddy of mine told me they probably wouldn't keep anything past a few years, but I figure I'd ask. I've heard other things saying film school's like to hold on to student's films in the case they end up becoming big successes- and the director, Bruce Cardozo had a nice career in the film industry as a visual effects artist. We'll see if I hear back- it'd be nice!
A decade ago I found a copy of a previously lost and largely undocumented other Spider-Man fan film. Spider-Man: The Quick and The Dead from 1990. That was back when bootleg sites were pretty easy to come by, maybe Spider-Man versus Kraven the Hunter was floating around back then and I missed it as I wasn't aware of it back then.
Quick and The Dead was an earlier Spider-Man project from the notable fan filmer Dan Poole who would later make the cult classic The Green Goblin's Last Stand in 1992. There's a lot of fun old Spider-Man fan projects that are lost (there's a few other old Dan Poole Spidey shorts, a Spider-Man vs. Scorpion short by Matthew Atherton, and probably a whole lot of others lost to time or hidden away somewhere) but Spider-Man versus Kraven the Hunter is the crown jewel of them to me. It looks really charming, true to the comic it's adapting, and professionally done.
If anybody's got some leads on Spider-Man versus Kraven the Hunter or has any info from searches of your own, please let it be known!
Just in the last week we've got four color stills for the first time from the project. I'm not certain, but I feel like it might have been spurred on by the Lost Media Mike video and someone else getting in contact with the person behind the Homemade Hollywood novel as the Facebook page for Homemade Hollywood uploaded a color still referencing the video. They mention the still showed up (in black and white) published in their book. I ordered a copy as I want to find out what it has to say on the supposedly crazy production, just the tidbit they share in the post alone is pretty wild with Tommy Ramone working on it. Looking forward to reading that as it has some interviews with the director from the late 2000s.
For the longest time I had thought there were no bootlegs of this floating around but I've seen rumblings to the contrary lately. One of the family members to A Andrew Pastorio (who played J. Jonah Jameson in the project) mentioned that in the early 2000s they saw a copy on an Italian bootleg site and regret not buying it then as their family wants to see it again. They also said they watched it in their grandparents home as kids since their grandfather was in it but they don't think they have a copy still.
I saw someone comment on the Lost Media Mike video that they actually saw it in the late 1980s on a bootleg compilation tape that also had "The Empire Strikes Quack" on it. They could be blowing smoke but that detail is what sells it for me as Empire Strikes Quack bit, as that is something that would have been circulating at the time. The person went on to say they never owned the tape but the person that did is a VHS collector that had lots of rare things but is a "creepy hermit." See, this lost media story even has creepy VHS hermits now! All the right ingredients! If the VHS person is out there, I'd like to talk to them.
I've reached out to NYU's preservation department (the college the student film was made for) to see if they would have a copy anywhere in their archives. A film school graduate buddy of mine told me they probably wouldn't keep anything past a few years, but I figure I'd ask. I've heard other things saying film school's like to hold on to student's films in the case they end up becoming big successes- and the director, Bruce Cardozo had a nice career in the film industry as a visual effects artist. We'll see if I hear back- it'd be nice!
A decade ago I found a copy of a previously lost and largely undocumented other Spider-Man fan film. Spider-Man: The Quick and The Dead from 1990. That was back when bootleg sites were pretty easy to come by, maybe Spider-Man versus Kraven the Hunter was floating around back then and I missed it as I wasn't aware of it back then.
Quick and The Dead was an earlier Spider-Man project from the notable fan filmer Dan Poole who would later make the cult classic The Green Goblin's Last Stand in 1992. There's a lot of fun old Spider-Man fan projects that are lost (there's a few other old Dan Poole Spidey shorts, a Spider-Man vs. Scorpion short by Matthew Atherton, and probably a whole lot of others lost to time or hidden away somewhere) but Spider-Man versus Kraven the Hunter is the crown jewel of them to me. It looks really charming, true to the comic it's adapting, and professionally done.
If anybody's got some leads on Spider-Man versus Kraven the Hunter or has any info from searches of your own, please let it be known!
