In an interview with SciFi Wire, director Sam Raimi said that the casting is all but complete on his Spider-Man movie, including Cliff Robertson as Uncle Ben, Rosemary Harris as Aunt May and a surprise appearance by Bruce Campbell. During a press briefing for his upcoming supernatural thriller The Gift, Raimi stated that production for the Spider-Man movie will begin in three weeks.

Veteran actors Robertson and Harris will join a cast that includes Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane and Willem Dafoe as the villainous Green Goblin. And concerning Campbell, who has appeared in Raimi's three Evil Dead films, Raimi said about him, "I'm going to work again with Bruce in Spider-Man."

Raimi also confirmed rumors that the movie's script, credited to David Koepp (Jurassic Park), has been the subject of numerous rewrites. "I would say that the script is always in need of work," Raimi said. "I'm not happy with it yet. But I think it's a very good script now. What we need to do is make it more than great, though. That's the problem. The expectation is so high that a very good script that I would have shot, and happily, isn't good enough. So I would say it's true, but that's the relative terms that it's true in. But no, the studio ... [is now] happy. Now it's worse than that. Now I've got to get happy."

Raimi also revealed the film's theme and said he wouldn't resort to the flashy camera tricks of his early films, such as Darkman. Spider-Man is "the story of a young man who is irresponsible and is selfish and has petty goals. And it's a story of how he learns to be a responsible young man," he said. "So it can't be about the shots. It's got to be about the character. Now I also have a responsibility to make it as exciting as possible. That's my conflict. I think I have to move the camera in such a way and so fast and so much so that it's exciting, and you're flying and swinging with Spider-Man, but not so much that you think it's a cool shot. [I have to] somehow [tread] that line."

Raimi added, "It's frightening, because there are so many kids that ... Spider-Man means so much to. They don't look to Hercules anymore--the Greek god--to understand life or experience what it means to be a hero. They look to Spider-Man. So what you have is the childhood dream of every child--not just in the United States, but actually internationally--and you've to take good care with it. And I've got a great responsibility on my shoulders, because he is their hero. So what lessons in the movie does he learn that exemplify being a hero? As a father, I feel a great deal of responsibility in pulling off the character for that reason. These kids are going to look up to whomever Spider-Man is. So what shall he be?"

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