'Amazing Spider-Man 2' Villain Dane DeHaan Is Seriously Stalking James Franco

As "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" casts its web over theaters this weekend, Dane DeHaan is no longer just that guy who looks like Leonardo DiCaprio in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape." The steely-eyed 28-year-old is taking his career to the next level as Spidey baddie Harry Osborn aka the Green Goblin.

It's no secret that he's been called the reason to be excited for the the Spidey movie. But one thing you may not know about the slight, light-haired actor is that he is career-stalking James Franco, and by laughably numerous proportions.

"James Franco does so many roles it's just hard to find a role that James Franco has not done at this point," DeHaan told Yahoo Movies with a laugh during a recent press day in New York.

Exhibit 1: Franco is the last actor to bring the Green Goblin to the big screen, less than a decade ago, before DeHaan took his first stab at it. "Well, you know Harry Osborn's been around for 50 years. James Franco was the first actor to play him in a movie," DeHaan said.

The career similarities don't end there. Harry Osborn is just one in a string of roles that have sent DeHaan inadvertently retracing Franco's filmography footsteps.

Exhibit 2: DeHaan will be seen next as James Dean in Anton Corbijn's "Life," the ephemeral road trip biopic he recently filmed opposite Robert Pattinson. Lest we forget, Franco played the late icon in a made-for-TV biopic in 2001.

Exhibit 3: DeHaan recently garnered a little cinematic cachet by appearing as the lover of Daniel Radcliffe's Allen Ginsberg in the indie flick "Kill Your Darlings." (Franco connection: He portrayed Ginsberg in the 2010 film "Howl.")

Though Franco has openly dissed the "Amazing Spider-Man" franchise for coming much too quickly after the one in which he starred, he has, for the record, reciprocated DeHaan's stalking ways... by painting him:

"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" is in theaters now.

Kevin Polowy contributed to this report.