'Spiderman III' premiere kicks off blockbuster season

The UK premiere of 'Spiderman III' takes place in London tonight - marking the start of the cinema blockbuster season.

Tobey Maguire, 31, returns as the comic-book legend following his starring role in the first two Spiderman films.

The movie, rumoured to be the last in the lucrative franchise, had its world premiere in Tokyo earlier this month.

Director Sam Raimi, who has made all three Spiderman films, is thought to want to direct forthcoming film 'The Hobbit' instead of another super-hero movie. 'Lord Of The Rings' filmmaker Peter Jackson was originally tipped to direct 'The Hobbit', but fell out with the studio New Line.

US actress Kirsten Dunst, 24, who plays love interest Mary Jane Watson, is attending the London Leicester Square premiere. All eyes will be on whether she brings her British boyfriend, Razorlight star Johnny Borrell, 27, to the event.

US director Raimi has been a life-long Spiderman fan and made all the star actors study the original comics to get into their roles. Stan Lee, the man who created the character, has cameo roles in all three films.

This year's movie features two new villains - Sandman, played by Thomas Haden Church, and Venom, with Topher Grace in the role.

Peter Parker/Spiderman will also do battle with his inner demons.

Sony Pictures has spent about £124m (€182.92m) on the latest sequel, with a large proportion of the budget going towards special effects. Combined, the original two films took around £800m (€1.18bn) in the box office.

The debut Spiderman film was so successful that the release date of the third instalment was already set when 'Spiderman II' was released. U2 stars Bono and The Edge are also rumoured to be working on a forthcoming 'Spiderman' musical.