A couple of Hollywood-ites have been chatting up their next flick to the Aussie press - kill two birds with one pebble, ya see? - notably, The Sunday Herald Sun, and the speakers - Topher Grace and Josh Lucas.

Grace told the paper a bit about his role as a villain - rumoured to be 'Chameleon', says the paper - in "Spider-Man 3".

According to Grace, the film will be released - this is a joke, you see - "in about 2020".

In prep for the role, the young actor has to "lift weights and I hate it", he says. "I'm in New York seeing friends and I have to go off and lift weights for two hours. I'm not exactly in great shape. Your body hurts every day, but that pain is good, I suppose".

Grace says his commitments to "Spider-Man 3" will take up about twelve months. When it's done, he'd love to come and promote it Down Under. It's his "No.1 destination spot", he says.

Meantime, Josh Lucas, starring in next week's "Stealth", told the Aussie rag about his next role - starring in a remake of "Poseidon Adventure", simply titled "Poseidon".

"They've built what is basically an eight-storey cruise ship upside-down on hydraulics underground", he said.

"You're going to see segments of the boat exploding and breaking apart. The sets are mind-blowing.

"It's a total reinvention of the original film. The story is the same only in that it is a cruise ship that gets hit by a rogue wave on New Year's Eve and flips upside down.

"I got very intrigued when by Wolfgnag Peterson saying it will be basically the third film in his trilogy, with the first being Das Boot (1981) and the second being The Perfect Storm (2000). He knows boats, knows confined spaces and knows water and an impending sense of doom to an extraordinary level.

"It's pure fun right now, but I'm not underwater drowning yet, which I will be in five months. We'll talk then".