Jake Gyllenhaal in Spider-Man 2

Jake Gyllenhaal nearly replaced Tobey Maguire as the web-slinger in 'Spider-Man 2' after the latter suffered a back injury and was advised not to do the project.

However, Maguire made a prompt recovery and eventually settled on a new contract with the studio - a decision that Gyllenhaal felt was right.

He said: "The truth of the matter is, in the end, [Tobey Maguire is] Spider-Man.

"There are so many roles in my career where I was up against another actor, or there was something happened that possibly could've happened but didn't happen but maybe it would have.

"Eventually my belief is when an actor's played a character, particularly in a movie, the character's theirs, and that's that.

"But yeah there was talk, he hurt himself and there was talk. There was a slew of actors [possibly up for the part], and I was one of them."