NEW YORK -- "X-Men: The Last Stand," opening today, features a huge cast that ranges far and wide in Hollywood, from virtual unknowns to veterans to Oscar winners. Here are some dispatches from the "X-Men" universe:

The Spike Lee Connection

"X-Men: The Last Stand" is not the first time Dania Ramirez, Aaron Stanford and Anna Paquin shared space on the screen. All appeared in Spike Lee's "25th Hour," with Brian Cox of "X-2," too.

Twentieth Century Fox Dania Ramirez as Callisto, right, was nervous about injuring famous co-star Halle Berry, portraying Storm. Click photo for larger image. The Interview Dania Ramirez and Aaron Stanford (Pyro) discuss how they brought physicality and creativity to their roles. The original description of Callisto called for someone bearing no resemblance to Dania Ramirez. She talks about how she got the part.

Ramirez is a Spike Lee favorite whom he picked for roles in "She Hate Me" and his video for Jay-Z's "Streets Is Watching."

Now she's Callisto, tattooed, pierced and street tough, a soldier in Magneto's war against a cure for the mutant gene. She also has a few fight scenes with another Lee discovery: Halle Berry, who got her big-screen break in "Jungle Fever."

"She was game for everything," Ramirez says of Berry, who portrays Callisto's nemesis, Storm. "We went in and had to practice the fight, and my big concern was trying not to hit her for real. That's Halle Berry! I would have been gone the next day. Callisto would have been in one scene."

She laughs about it now, having dished out and received a few kicks and scrapes along the way.

"The thing I love about our fights is it's two women, and we're not pulling hair and we're not scratching," Ramirez says. "We're really going at it. It's really an aggressive fight."

'Tadpole' and TV

If the fire-hurling Pyro looks familiar, it's probably because Aaron Stanford pops up in the most unexpected places for a bad-guy mutant.

	Twentieth Century Fox Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) radiates intense cold to ward off a fiery attack by Pyro (Aaron Stanford). Click photo for larger image. The Interview Aaron Stanford discusses what it was like working with Brett Ratner after he took over for director Bryan Singer.

He began his career in 2002's "Tadpole," a coming-of-age story about a 15-year-old boy, Stanford's character, who falls in love with his stepmother. Many of the "X-3" actors have worked on independents, and the difference is night and day, trailer or -- as Paquin put it -- "that corner over there."

" 'Tadpole' was shot for something like $150,000, $200,000, something crazy," Stanford recalls. "We shot with something like hand-held Fisher-Price cameras in 14 days. The only thing similar [about "X-Men" and "Tadpole"] was that I was working with a caliber of actor with which I was just terrified. From Sigourney Weaver to like, Ian McKellen. That was the only similarity.

"Big budget and small budget, they're very different animals."

You may also recognize Stanford from his stint as Sergei on "Third Watch," and there's a chance you'll see more of him soon on TV. His "Traveler" is a possible midseason replacement for ABC.

Stage development

Anna Paquin, who turns 25 in July, still faces constant questions about winning the Oscar at age 13 for "The Piano." She'd much rather talk about the theater, which she has frequented in recent years, starting with "The Glory of Living" in 2001 for director Philip Seymour Hoffman, a more recent Oscar winner.

Twentieth Century Fox Rogue (Anna Paquin) and Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) test the limitations her mutant powers put on a possible relationship. Click photo for larger image. The Interview The cure introduced in "The Last Stand" is very tempting for Rogue, played by Oscar-winner Anna Paquin in all three "X-Men" films.

"I had the incredible good fortune that the first play I ever did was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is frankly one of the gods in my universe and who I am permanently indebted to as far as beating into submission every last little bad habit I had as an actor. He's the most phenomenal, insightful person I've ever met."

Paquin's Rogue doesn't get much screen time in "X-Men III," but her character's dilemma is central to the story. Should Rogue take the cure? What others see as power, she sees as something that has cursed her to a life without human contact. There are no easy answers, and when she seeks one from Wolverine, he advises her, he says, not as a father would, but as a friend: "Don't do it for your boyfriend. ... Do it because it's what you want."

"The basic of Rogue's storyline is of self-discovery," Paquin says. "So as an actor, while the physical stuff is really fun, there's a lot more weight to the decision effecting Rogue, because she is more impeded by her abilities, so to speak. ... It's that she can't physically blend in; she can't lead a normal life."

Angel and Iceman

Ben Foster walks in the room asking reporters for advice about what's Mac compatible for digital recorders, quickly connecting with the group, just as he did as one of the newest X-Men, Angel.

Twentieth Century Fox It took hours in makeup before Ben Foster was able to reveal his mutant powers to the amazement of his father, Warren Worthington II (Michael Murphy), and geneticist Dr. Kavita Rao (Shohreh Aghdashloo). Click photo for larger image. The Interview Ben Foster, new to the series as Angel, examines the blessing and curse of having wings. The process of getting wings began with a makeup call at 4 a.m.

After roles in "The Punisher" and HBO's "Six Feet Under," Foster's career could be ready to take flight with "The Last Stand" and "Alpha Dog," a crime drama for Nick Cassavetes in which Foster plays "a crystal-meth-addict skinhead. A little different from Angel."

He had a lot of time to think about his role as Angel while he was having his back spread with glue and the big wings attached.

"The introduction to Angel -- it's a beautiful metaphor, seeing someone who would seem to be blessed in some ways, with a 16-foot wing span, and then be haunted by this, in his opinion, in his father's opinion, to be a horrible disfigurement. What a beautiful thing to think about: The things that make us different, that make us individuals. That's the success of this series."

Shawn Ashmore is an "X" veteran as Iceman, Rogue's love interest and a young man ready to flex his mutant powers. He was signed to do "The Last Stand" before director Bryan Singer dropped out and Brett Ratner took the helm.

"We trusted Bryan. ... But once Brett came in and he respected the actors that have been playing the parts for several films, after the first couple of days of shooting, there was a rhythm and it just flowed from there."

His "3 Needles," a film about AIDS on three continents by Thom Fitzgerald, created some buzz at the Toronto Film Festival, and he's finished "Solstice" for Daniel Myrick ("The Blair Witch Project").

Movie Review

'X-Men: The Last Stand'