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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, August 11, 2003

'Spider-Man 2' promises 8-legged trouble

By Susan Wloszczyna
USA Today

No one can say the latest "Spider-Man" arch nemesis isn't well-armed.

Something is definitely fishy in "Spider-Man 2," the sequel to last year's comic-inspired box office sensation shooting in Los Angeles. And we don't mean the leftovers in Aunt May's fridge.

Dr. Otto Octavius, the sinister scientist known to Spidey buffs as Doc Ock or Doctor Octopus, was unveiled this weekend at

San Diego's Comic-Con bash. For a closer look, check www.sony.com/Spider-Man.

Alfred Molina, who has done wrong in everything from "Chocolat" to "Dudley Do-Right," is the man bearing those malevolent arms.

"Alfred happens to be a great actor who has some of the qualities of a loved character," says director Sam Raimi, who returns for a second spin with the web-slinging superhero reprised by Tobey Maguire and due July 2, 2004. "Doc Ock had to have a commanding presence and intelligence," Raimi says. "He's got the look of a bodybuilder from 1954."

"I'm told he's one of the more popular villains," says Molina, 50, who occasionally flipped through the comics as a kid. "It would have been foolish to have said no." Originally a humanitarian, the doctor conducts an experiment that goes horribly awry and accidentally fuses a quartet of huge squid limbs to his spine.

Raimi considers the doctor to be Spider-Man's perfect foe, since both possess the nature of eight-legged creatures. "His many arms can really put an agile athlete like Spider-Man to the test," he says.

The Doc also has more human pathos than Spidey's first movie opponent, Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin. "I never considered Doc Ock as a madman" — unlike Goblin, Raimi says. "He just gets his priorities out of order. He's ruthless, but I always thought of him as sane but misguided."

In a story not borrowed from the comic books, Spidey's alter ego, Peter Parker, runs into Dr. Octavius while attending college. "They meet in a laboratory," Raimi says. "Dr. Octavius is working on a project, and both share an interest in physics. He becomes an unwilling teacher."

Molina's arsenal of appendages, whose performance is half animatronic and half digital effects, weighs 75 to 100 pounds. "The first thing I did was to get in a gym with a trainer," he says. Sixteen puppeteers work the expandable 13-foot arms.

• • •

'Spider-Man 2' director separates web of rumors into fact, fiction

With great success comes great speculation. For months, the Web has been tangled up with rumors about what Spidey and his pals will be up to in "Spider-Man 2," which opens July 2, 2004. Director Sam Raimi took a break from his busy shooting schedule last week to unravel a few matters.

• Don't expect any upside-down canoodling this time. Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) and Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) are on the outs, with MJ pursuing acting and modeling aspirations and Peter going to school and foiling evildoers.

• Mary Jane isn't waiting for Peter to come to his Spidey senses. She is linked with handsome astronaut John Jameson (Daniel Gillies), son of Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson.

• Dr. Octavius won't woo Peter's Aunt May as he does in the comics — yet. "That is a popular story line," Raimi says. "It might appear at a later date. Anything that puts Peter in a difficult situation, I'm for it."

• The Sinister Six, a gang of villains (Vulture, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio and Sandman) organized by Doc Ock, also will be missing in action for now.

• Dr. Curt Connors, who was mentioned in the first "Spider-Man," will show up in the sequel, played by Dylan Baker ("Happiness"). But any transformation into the Lizard, his evil alter ego, is on hold.

• Betty Brant will put in another appearance. Played again by Elizabeth Banks (who is in "Seabiscuit" with Maguire), the secretary at the Daily Bugle will have a slightly larger part and could blossom into a future Peter love interest. "It is possible we could develop it," Raimi says.

• Not slinking into the picture this time is another Peter love interest, Felicia Hardy aka Black Cat.

• While Maguire says he is definitely signed for another sequel, Raimi isn't sure about a third film. "I don't know if they are hiring me," he says.

— USA Today