(Comics Continuum) Director Sam Raimi confirmed in a taped message at the International Comic-Con in San Diego that the villains in his upcoming Spider-Man movie will be the Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus. "They do battle amongst the rooftops of Manhattan, and the Goblin uses his devices from his Goblin glider, his own personal winged transport, to his infamous pumpkin bombs, stun bombs, blast bombs, and he also uses his bag of razor bats--you don't want to know what those things do," said Raimi in the transcript.

Raimi continued, "Doc Ock is a brilliant scientist, and he has developed these snake-like arms. And they are expanding arms that can work with great dexterity and fluidity, which I think is going to be quite interesting with visual effects, which are going to have to be created digitally. And we have a great designer in Sony Imageworks to help pull that off."

Aside from villain talk, Raimi said casting process for the title role of the movie is still ongoing. "We don't have anyone yet cast for Spider-Man, but we're talking to all of Hollywood's hottest young men," Raimi said. "I'm not at liberty to say their names, but almost every young great actor has come to me and said that they must play Spider-Man because he is the hero of their youth." And those in charge of casting for the move, please, no "Baywatch" actors!

Raimi's promise is that his Spider-Man will excite fans of the comic series. "I've been a fan of Spider-Man since I was a kid. What is so exciting about Spider-Man is that Peter Parker, his alias, the human being that Spider-Man is, lives in our world, in the real world. And he has problems that we identify with. He's misunderstood. Unlike Batman and Superman, where you have the whole crowds actually cheering for him, Spider-Man does good, but he's misunderstood, and people boo Spider-Man. ... What I'd like Spider-Man to be is not be a muscleman that is Superman or Batman, those stiff characters, but rather this very, lithe, thin graceful dancer of a superhero who performs his ballets 80 stories up, above the city."

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