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ON THE COVER Spidey towers over the summer movie season, yet within three weeks, two other potential blockbusters will be pushing for box-office supremacy

Right now, in a suite of production offices on the Sony lot in L.A., Spider-Man 3 is more Sam Raimi's film than anyone else's. It's Saturday, March 31, and he's been working since early morning. At this very late date, he and a postproduction team are racing to finalize the music score, the sound mix, and more than two dozen CG effects shots. He has only four days left to finish in time for Sony to churn out the thousands of copies that must unspool worldwide in early May (the 4th in North America).

Oh, and a few more boulders to toss onto Raimi's back: This installment gets a mere two weeks in theaters before Shrek the Third shows up, then one week more until Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End sails in. It's far more expensive than the other Spidey movies, clocking in at $250 million or more with nearly a thousand CG shots and three major new characters. Plus, right now, no one is sure who'll be back for the inevitable fourth Spider-Man movie, including Raimi himself. The Internet abounds in rumors that he may jump ship and take over that whole Lord of the Rings prequel thing about Hobbits that Peter Jackson was supposed to do for New Line before a feud over profit accounting turned very public.

''It's hard to look beyond this movie,'' Raimi says. ''It's so all-consuming.'' He smushes his bangs down on his forehead with his hand, his skin sallow from lack of sunlight. ''We need more time to complete the effects. But we can't have it.'' Although he's wearing his customary jacket and necktie — a sign of respect for film craft, he always says — the tie is loose, his collar is unbuttoned, and he's caveman-unshaven. ''We're trying to get as many changes and fixes in as we can before they yank the negative out of my hands,'' he says. ''And they've been yanking.''

How did Raimi spend 33 months making a film with a megabudget and still end up frantic to finish? By pushing like crazy to up the ante. You think that runaway-elevated-train sequence in Spider-Man 2 was complex? Spidey 3 has an underground subway fight, an airborne battle, and a five-way main-character showdown finale set at a skyscraper construction site. You liked the villain in 2? Raimi and Co. piled on a trio of baddies this time. No wonder the director felt a sense of vertigo when the release-date start gun first went off on the third movie in summer 2004. ''At that point, you've been released from the airplane,'' he says. ''You've got a bag of silk, a needle and thread, and a long fall in front of you. The question is, Can you design a parachute in time?''

NEXT PAGE: ''How far can we go and still keep people rooting for Peter?''


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