SPIDER-MAN CENTRAL • Photos: Spidey 3 Premiere • Spidey 3 Film Stills • Spidey 3 Behind-the-Scenes • Villian Vote! • Tobey Maguire Feature • Kirsten Dunst Feature • Spidey 2 Behind-the-Scenes

"Not a bad job if you can get it," director Sam Raimi interjects after a dripping-wet Kirsten Dunst delivers her line. She then approaches an upside-down Tobey Maguire, who, as Spider-Man, is in head-to-toe red, black, and blue. With principal photography long since wrapped, Raimi, huddled next to editor Bob Murawski, observes the two actors on several monitors in a dark editing bay on the Sony lot. Raimi is preparing for a meeting with his visual-effects team, but he can't help taking a moment to admire the good fortune of his lead actor.

"At this point in the movie, Spidey is like a misunderstood teenager. He's a misunderstood superhero — he's feeling bad," Raimi says, watching the flickering image on the screen. "One of the effects that Kirsten — I mean MJ [Mary Jane] — has on Spider-Man is that she lifts his spirits."

Apparently. The scantily clad Dunst peels the costume down Maguire's face, revealing his mouth, and she proceeds to give him a ravishing kiss.

"You see why I cast him," Raimi says. "It had to be someone I could identify with. The story [of Spider-Man] is, 'What if one of us became a superhero?' "