asting When Tobey Maguire signed on to portray Spider-Man in 2000, he was given a three-film contract. After filming Seabiscuit in late 2002, a pre-existing back condition that Maguire suffered from was bothering him and Sony was faced with the possibility of recasting their lead. Negotiations arose to replace Maguire with Jake Gyllenhaal, though Maguire recovered and was able to reprise his role, with a salary of $17 million. Several actors were considered for the part of Doctor Octopus, including Ed Harris, Chris Cooper, Christopher Walken and Robert De Niro; Molina was cast as Octavius in February 2003 and underwent physical training for the role. Raimi had been impressed by his performance in Frida and also felt that his large physical size was true to the comic book character. Molina only briefly discussed the role and was not aware that he was a strong contender. He was a big fan of Marvel Comics and was excited to get the part. Although he was not familiar with Doc Ock, Molina found one element of the comics that he wanted to maintain, the character's cruel, sardonic sense of humor. Filming The Spydercam was used extensively in the film to "track stunt doubles and a computer-generated Spider-Man through the air". Spider-Man 2 was shot on over one hundred sets and locations, beginning with a pre-shoot on the Loop in Chicago during two days in November 2002. The crew acquired a train of 2200 series cars, placing sixteen cameras for background shots of Spider-Man and Doc Ock's train fight. Principal photography began on April 12, 2003 in New York City and Chicago. The crew moved on May 13 to Los Angeles, shooting on sets created by production designer Neil Spisak. After the scare surrounding his back pains, Tobey Maguire relished performing many of his stunts, even creating a joke of it with Raimi, creating the line "My back, my back" as Spider-Man tries to regain his powers. Even Rosemary Harris took a turn, putting her stunt double out of work. In contrast, Alfred Molina joked that the stunt team would "trick" him into performing a stunt time and again. Frame of an old burnt-out New York Central Railroad dock on the west side of Manhattan, which was used for the film. Filming was put on hiatus for eight weeks, in order to build Doc Ock's pier lair. It had been Spisak's idea to use a collapsed pier as Ock's lair, reflecting an exploded version of the previous lab and representing how Octavius' life had collapsed and grown more monstrous, evoking the cinema of Fritz Lang and the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Filming then resumed on that set, having taken fifteen weeks to build, occupying Sony's Stage 30. It was 60 feet (18 m) by 120 feet (37 m) long, and 40 feet (12 m) high, and a quarter-scale miniature was also built for the finale as it colla