Over an enervating 110-day shoot, the new-to-the-team stars had it pounded home over and over again just how tedious action movies can be for actors — and how frantic for the director and crew. Church recalls that Raimi would shuttle between as many as seven separate working sets. He'd zip in, give pointers, then race off in a golf cart to another setup. ''They really should have cloned Sam back when the first Spider-Man was making 400-something million,'' he says. ''Then they could have had six Sams to direct this movie.''
Of course, nobody's cloning Raimi any time soon. And that's what makes the prospect of a wrestling match between Sony and New Line over which franchise Raimi gets to tend to next so fascinating. Asked about those Hobbit reports back in his office, Raimi dodges and twists. ''Um, I've heard it suggested that that might be possible,'' he says. ''Peter Jackson might be the best filmmaker on the planet right now. But, um, I don't know what's going to happen next for me right now. First and foremost, those are Peter Jackson and Bob Shaye's films. If Peter didn't want to do it, and Bob wanted me to do it — and they were both okay with me picking up the reins — that would be great. I love the book. It's maybe a more kid-friendly story than the others.'' New Line's Shaye has conceded that there's no finished script in place, but the studio has no new official comment. Back at the house of Spidey, one of the series' producers, Avi Arad, says there's a story idea and an old-school villain lined up for Spider-Man 4. Production president Matt Tolmach says, ''Listen, we're making Spider-Man 4. Our hope, dream, and intention is to do it with Sam.... But I don't have a crystal ball.''
If Raimi does leave Spidey behind, what a twist it would be for the studio's cash-cow character: He vanquishes villain after villain, but winds up hobbled by...Bilbo Baggins. Maguire has vacillated in interviews about whether he'd be willing to do another movie sans Raimi, or even with him. Meantime, Dunst says that if either Raimi or Maguire departs, she's out — and she thinks rebooting with another director and actor would be a mistake. ''It's disrespectful to the whole team, I think, to do that,'' she says. ''And audiences aren't stupid. It'd be a big flop without me, Tobey, or Sam. That would be really not the smartest move. But they know that already. [Sony co-chair] Amy Pascal would never do that.'' The Hobbit wrinkle, meanwhile, comes as a surprise to her. ''I had no idea,'' she says. ''God — why can't Sam just do something small? I told him, 'Go on a freaking vacation. Go rent a house where nobody will bother you and cell phones don't work. Go with your kids and your wife and just chill out.'''
Raimi professes he's too exhausted wrapping up Spider-Man 3 to focus on any decision right now. His wife recently gave birth to their fifth child, and he hasn't been home much with all the deadline pressure. ''Outside of finishing the movie,'' he says, ''it's hard to think about anything except what a bad father you are.'' And as Raimi knows well, babies can be demanding. None more so than a multibillion-dollar franchise.
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