The Times Online are reporting that Tobey Maguire stands to earn $50m in salary and profit shares for filming Spider-man 4 and Spider-man 5 back to back over six months. As part of the deal Maguire has also been allowed time off during mornings and evenings to spend with his young daughter - an exceptional case due to the planned duration of the shoot.

“Tobey admits he is obsessive-compulsive about everything he does, and raising Ruby is no different,” a friend said last week. “There’s no way Tobey would allow work, no matter how well paid, to get between him and Ruby, and Sony realised that.”