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SPIDER-MAN Tobey Maguire bugs out as the comic-book hero

That's director Sam Raimi (whose trademark suit-and-tie on-set ensemble was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock) giving tips on rescuing babies from burning buildings to everybody's friendly neighborhood web crawler while filming in New York City last spring. "Obviously, Spider-Man is such a New York character, we had to shoot there," says producer Laura Ziskin--even though that meant enduring the scrutiny of paparazzi as they filmed in Queens and Greenwich Village. The man behind the mask, of course, is Tobey Maguire (left, with Raimi), who credits an intense regimen of gymnastics, weight training, and yoga with helping him fill out the costume. "I have to admit, I slacked off a bit toward the end," he says. "But I think we made it through." Still, how can we be certain it's Maguire under there? "That's Tobey, baby. He got buff," insists Ziskin. "Sometimes it will be CGI--though hopefully, you won't know when." (May 3)

FRIDA Frida Kahlo's bio hits the big screen with Salma Hayek starring as the Mexican artist

There was the one Madonna was going to do. There was the one that Laura San Giacomo was cast for. But of all the Frida Kahlo biopics in development over the last decade, it is Salma Hayek's that has crossed the finish line. After seven years of trying to produce and star in a film about the life of the Mexican artist--famed for her surreal self-portraits, monkeys, stormy marriage to muralist Diego Rivera, love affair with Leon Trotsky, and style-setting monobrow--Hayek rounded up a backer (Miramax), a director (Titus' Julie Taymor), and a Diego (Chocolat's Alfred Molina). "I was really in denial," says the actress, seen right on the Mexico City set with Taymor and costar Ashley Judd (who plays photographer Tina Modotti). "I was terrified that it was all going to go away." On the contrary: If Frida comes off, Hayek will have arrived. (October)

POSSESSION Neil LaBute modernizes A.S. Byatt's novel

He squirted the blood squibs between kisses in his previous film, Nurse Betty. This time out, director Neil LaBute says he's working in an "unabashedly romantic" idiom. Adapted from A.S. Byatt's novel of the same name, Possession follows two modern-day academics, one British (Gwyneth Paltrow), one American (Aaron Eckhart, below with his director and costar), as they unearth a romance between two Victorian-era poets (Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle). LaBute pushed hard to spice up the modern half of the story. "They're looking through files," he says. "And dusting off old letters. How do you make that vivid?" Answer: by jumping constantly to the flashier flashback story, in which a prefeminist lesbian bard runs away with a man. "It's got suicide, adultery, betrayal," says LaBute of the parallel narrative. "My favorites." (June)

THE TUXEDO Chan...Jackie Chan proves that he's well suited for this action-packed takeoff on spy capers

The clothes really do make the man in The Tuxedo, an action comedy starring Chaplin-of-chopsocky Jackie Chan (above, with James Brown) as a bumbling cabdriver-turned-secret agent with a souped-up monkey suit that would make 007 look woefully underdressed. "It's not like Inspector Gadget," clarifies director Kevin Donovan. "It's all within the realm of human possibility." Hence Chan's high-tech threads enable him to jump a 12-foot wall, sprint as fast as Carl Lewis, even "mix drinks the speed of Tom Cruise in Cocktail--even a little better." Audiences will probably be more shaken and stirred by Chan's daredevil stunt work, which includes a back flip off a 120-foot grain silo. "He's maybe the toughest guy I've ever seen," Donovan says. "After the fourth take, I was like, 'We better not do any more, he's going to hurt himself.' But he went 40 takes, just to prove a point: This is how hard you have to work to make it good." (June 7)


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