The first news about the ''Spider-Man'' sequel

by Mari Cartel and Brian M. Raftery

Though ”Spider-Man” has yet to hit theaters, Columbia Pictures is already lining up the next round of bad guys for Tobey Maguire’s movie wall-crawler. ”They were thinking of two [villains] in the next one, which is a good idea,” says Kirsten Dunst, who along with Maguire is signed on for at least two more films. (Director Sam Raimi recently agreed to helm ”Spider-Man 2.”) Dunst notes that in addition to facing fan fave Dr. Octopus, a rogue ex-atomic researcher with four steel tentacles, Spidey is likely to confront ”a lizard thing.” The latter should come as no surprise to keen-eared comic connoisseurs: Halfway through the new film, Maguire’s alter ego Peter Parker reveals that he’s just been fired from the office of one ”Dr. Connors” — a name shared by the troubled scientist who becomes Spidey’s arch-nemesis Lizard. That should spin plenty of talk on the Web.