SPIDER MAN RETURNS

Guttenberg back with ‘2Lava 2Lantula’

YES, Steve Guttenberg realizes he’s acting in a campy summer movie about giant, lava-spewing spiders — this time terrorizing Florida in Syfy’s “2Lava 2Lantula,” the sequel to last year’s “Lavalantula.”

And, yes, Guttenberg, knows that both “Lavalantula” movies owe a big debt to their Syfy stablemate, “Sharknado,” the fourth iteration of which airs Sunday night (with a cameo from Guttenberg’s “Lavalantula” alterego, tough-guy movie star Colton West). But that doesn’t mean the actor takes his job — or his movie — any less seriously.

“You have to put it in the right context,” says Guttenberg, 57. “If I’m a carpenter and I’m coming to your house to do a small bathroom near a mud room, and then tomorrow I’m going out to East Hampton and building a 7,000-square-foot house on the water, my responsibility is to give you both the same kind of service. There are some actors who do [that] and some who don’t. I do. I give it everything I’ve got because I’m hired to do a job.

“Granted, this is not ‘Pride and Prejudice’ ... but I want it to be a really funny movie,” he says. “The best comedy is when you’re sincere about it. That’s when the comedy really works. Even in a silly movie, the only way it works is when the characters work.”

This time around, Colton West springs into action when sinkholes dotting the beaches of Florida unleash ginormous, firespitting Lavalantulas threatening all of mankind (and Colton’s stepdaughter). If that’s not bad enough, Colton also has to battle

the mother-of-all Lavalantulas — the ... wait for it ... Gargantulantula.

But, rest assured, the odds are good that Colton will save the day, as he did last summer.

“He’s the same guy. Nothing different,” says Guttenberg. “In this one he takes himself a little more seriously, which hopefully is funnier. Maybe he’s a little more sensitive because he has a daughter in this version.

“There’s a lot more steroid usage and meta references and movie references in this one,” he says. “And the visual effects are greater and more frightening, giving a little more urgency to the film and maintaining its tone, which is: ‘This is just fun, boys and girls. This is just fun.’ I think the audience is looking for that.”

In the real world, Guttenberg is working on a sitcom with Jon Lovitz, which he describes as a “sort of spy vs. spy, two nemeses, with Jon as a loudmouth Rodney Dangerfield type and me as the Alan Arkin, uptight fellow.” Shortly, he’ll start shooting a movie, “The Pride of San Quentin,” about Clinton Duffy, an outspoken proponent of prisoner rehabilitation and reform.

Meanwhile, Guttenberg says there’s already talk of a possible third “Lavalantula” movie. “The idea ... is to do a live version of ‘Lavalantula,’ ” he says. “It would basically be all one shot, reminiscent of [the Alfred Hitchcock movie] ‘Rope.’

“There’s a great deal of interest in it.”

“This is not ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ but I want it to be a really funny movie.” — Steve Guttenberg