Spider-Man Documentary

[AKarp2013]

Whatever happened to that documentary on the making of Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark? Is Julie not allowing it to be made public?

[It's a fine life!]

I'm surprised she doesn't want to direct it.

[Jordan Catalano]

She'd direct traffic if they'd let her.

[It's a fine life!]

And ruin modern transit as we know it!!! HA!

[DEClarke]

Why the Taymor hate? She great! WHat ruined Spider-Man was not letting her do all that she envisioned and reducing it down to what it is... oh, and U2 promising a better score than they offered up.

[Jordan Catalano]

Yeah...................

[It's a fine life!]

You are right. And I don't hate Julie Taymor. I just don't usually find opportunities to be witty, so I ran with it.

On VHS I have a very old documentary about the production of The Tempest she did in New York, and it is responsible for sparking my interest in Shakespeare.

[Borstalboy]

I imagine once this closes there will be some kind of book. There HAS to be....hopefully an gathered oral narrative in the style of EDIE or ROBERT ALTMAN.

[Anthony Fremont]

The lawsuits with Taymor were settled a while back, but I wouldn't be surprised if Jacob has to go through his father next.
This documentary, right?

[SNAFU]

What ruined Spider-Man was giving Julie free reign with no restraints. Why Lion King is sucessful is because Disney did it's best to wreel her in when she started going nuts on them.

[AEA AGMA SM]

That's very true, Snafu, and is a consistent theme in all of her work. Just think about that original draft of Across the Universe that would have been close to a six hour movie. Julie is a wonderful artist who needs a firm hand to keep her on task. When left to her own devices she has very little ability to actually edit her work, every idea is brilliant and must be seen.

[yankeefan7]

SNAFU- Just curious, is Twla Tharp (Movin Out) the same as Taymor. I heard Tharp is very tough to work for and it is either her way or the highway.

[sbflyfan]

[SNAFU]

Yankee, I couldn't say, I have never worked with Twyla. I did work a quite a few Taymor shows though. Up until the first go around with Juan Darien.
Julie cannot edit her work at all and she thinks her every idea is divine. Her images and stage pictures are great but if you were to ask her why she put them there, I don't think she could tell you. It is not some deep seated sybolism or anything, just she liked the idea.

[trentsketch]

The saddest part of this whole story for me was when the rebooted the show. From what I saw in one of the first previews to what I saw what would have been a few nights before the official opening, the show had transformed into an interesting piece of theater. I liked Taymor's concept of Arachne as the villain in Act II and whoever got her to streamline the ambiance and focus on the plot is a miracle worker. It was no masterpiece, but it would have been an intriguing spectacle.

The new version is popcorn entertainment and it has its place. I'd love to find out more about the how and why of Taymor's interpretation (beyond the co-writer's needlessly snarky summary at NYCC in 2011; a night panel would have made sense for that approach, but this was the big event panel on Kids' Day). I mean, I'm one of the few people who liked the Geek Chorus idea (I hated the onstage guitar players, though) but was totally on board with cutting back on the meta to bring out a pretty cool superhero story.