Career: Maguire left school early and began gaining small roles in advertisements and TV shows. He had a regular role in sitcom Great Scott! in 1992, and went on to appear in such acclaimed films as This Boy's Life (opposite good friend Leonardo DiCaprio), The Ice Storm and Deconstructing Harry. Ride with the Devil, Pleasantville and The Cider House Rules proved he was more than just a pretty face and put him on the map. Since then he's appeared in Wonder Boys, Ride with the Devil, Seabiscuit, Spider-Man, together with its two hugely successful sequels, Brothers and, again with DiCaprio, The Great Gatsby.

Career: Willem toured with Theatre X for four years, before joining avant garde New York company The Performance Group. He made his first venture into film acting with a role in Heaven's Gate, but was cut from the finished movie. He went on to win parts in To Live and Die in LA and The Loveless, but his big break came with Platoon, which earned him an Oscar nomination. He also made headlines in 1988 when he took the lead role in the controversial The Last Temptation of Christ. Since then, his movies have included Mississippi Burning, Born on the Fourth of July, The English Patient, Shadow of the Vampire (for which he received another Oscar nod) and Spider-Man. His more recent films include Antichrist, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, Daybreakers and Miral.

Career: Her debut movie was 1989's New York Stories. Roles in Bonfire of the Vanities and TV series Loving followed. Her breakthrough year was 1994, when she starred in Interview with the Vampire, Jumanji, and Little Women. In 1996, she had a recurring role in ER and since then has become one of Hollywood's top young actresses. Dunst's most acclaimed work has been in such movies as The Virgin Suicides, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Bring It On, Spider-Man and its sequel, Mona Lisa Smile, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Wimbledon. Recent projects include romantic comedy Elizabethtown, as well as the lavish Marie-Antoinette and Spider-Man 3.

Career: Franco landed a role in cult US TV show Freaks and Geeks, and followed it up with other minor roles before scoring a major critical success in a TV movie about the life of James Dean. That led to him being cast Spider-Man's best friend in the summer 2002 major hit Spider-Man and its sequels. Deuces Wild, City by the Sea, Pineapple Express and In the Valley of Elah followed. He won rave reviews opposite Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant's Milk and gave an Oscar-nominated performance in 127 Hours - he also co-hosted the Oscars in 2011. Despite huge movie successes, Franco re-enrolled at UCLA in the autumn of 2006 to study creative writing; he later published a collection of short stories which received mixed reviews.

Career: Stage roles followed with Captain Hook and Mr Darling, Peter Pan and a revival of Guys and Dolls. His film debut came in The Ref (1994). He made guest appearances in a number of TV shows before his big break in 1997 when he began playing Dr Emil Skoda in Law & Order. He also played a villain in six seasons of crime drama OZ. His movie credits include scene-stealing performances in The Gift (2000), The Mexican (2001) and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, where he played newspaper mogul J Jonah Jameson. He was a main character in TV crime drama The Closer, which ran from 2005 until 2012. His other movie credits include Juno (2007), Burn After Reading (2008), Up in the Air (2009) and I Love You, Man (2009). He has also voiced a number of characters in TV shows, films and video games.

Career: After graduating from Carnegie Mellon, Manganiello moved to Los Angeles, California and gained his first film role in Spider-Man (2002). He had various parts on such TV series as ER, How I Met Your Mother and One Tree Hill before landing the role of Alcide Herveaux in fantasy horror series True Blood. Since then, he has had roles in a number of films, including What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012), Sabotage (2014), Magic Mike (2012) and its sequel Magic Mike XXL (2015). Manganiello is also a published author, having released his first book, Evolution, in late 2013.

Career: Raimi moved away from the horror genre, directing the western The Quick and the Dead (1995), crime thriller A Simple Plan (1998) and the romantic drama For Love of the Game (1999). He achieved critical and commercial success in 2002 with the release of Spider-Man. It grossed more than $800million worldwide and Raimi went on to direct two more equally successful Spidey sequels. More recently, Raimi has directed Drag Me to Hell (2009) and Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). He produced the 2013 remake of Evil Dead. On TV, Raimi has produced Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and its spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess, and been the executive producer on Spartacus Blood and Sand, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Spartacus: Vengeance and Spartacus: War of the Damned.