Actor was not the obvious choice

"Tobey has specialised by playing sensitive young men in such movies as The Cider House Rules and Wonder Boys but I knew that Spiderman would depend on a believable portrayal of the title character's alter-ego, the problem-plagued teen Peter Parker … and Tobey is perfect. He IS Peter Parker! I think he's terrific!"

Spiderman, an instant Stateside hit with an opening week-end Box Office return of over $114m (€120m), is a spectacular, and highly-enjoyable, transfer of one of the great icon characters from printed page to screen.

Says the 26-year-old actor of the part: "There is a common-man element to Spiderman. He may be a superhero but he is also an ordinary guy who becomes a hero, which is both a gift and a curse to him.

With Parker, the closer you get to him, the stronger you feel about him. The most important thing was to remain true to the original character.

"Spiderman is not a guy who always wins. Everything is not rosy for him, or easy. His superpower is as much a hindrance as a blessing. We tried to make him like any sensitive, typical teenager.

"Teenagers identify with Spiderman because they have the same ordinary worries as he does. He is the most introspective of all the heroes."

Maguire, a dedicated basketball fan and all-round sportsman, was anxious to bring the same amount of character work to Spiderman as he does to any of his more reality-based movies: "I'm not sure why I seem to play outsiders in my movies. People ask me about my upbringing and was I a nerdy kid who got bullied and didn't get the girl and all that kind of stuff. I think I'm just going to let people think that, because it makes for a more charming story. OK, if I'm in a social situation, sometimes I like to observe people. But I feel very much part of things most of the time, and I feel very comfortable socialising. I have for most of my life.

"Sometimes, of course, it's a little tough to get acclimatised and make new friends when I come into a new situation and a lot of times I'll just sit back and not put on a show for anybody - I like to take my time getting into a group. But I'm certainly not a shy person, really."

Spiderman was, he says, his most challenging role: "How do I communicate and keep the audience with the character while he's masked and they can't see his expressions? How do I set it all up in a way that gets audiences to invest enough of themselves in his adventures and journey?

"All of this was important to me because I wanted to make Spiderman as real as possible … OK, so he's this extraordinary superhero who can do amazing feats, but he's deep-down just as ordinary as the next guy. It was an interesting challenge to get the character right. Which I hope I managed to do."

Spiderman co-stars Kirsten Dunst as the hero's feisty girlfriend, Mary Jane, and Willem Dafoe as the evil Green Goblin.