If you’re ever in need of a sign that Broadway is getting too commercial for its own good and running out of ideas, just remind yourself that a Spiderman musical is on the way. And to make matters worse, it’s a Spiderman musical with music written by U2 (arrrrrrrrrgh!). Why a director of Julie Taymor’s stature would want to apply her considerable talents to such a reprehensible project is beyond me. But like it or not, this musical is happening. The massive multimillion-dollar show is deep into the planning stages and rehearsals should start shortly.

While Taymor has yet to cast her Spider-man (though Jim Sturges the star of her forgettable Beatles musical Across The Universe has been rumored for ages), the director added two big names to the cast today. The ever-growing talent that is Evan Rachel Wood will be playing Mary-Jane Watson while versatile theater veteran Alan Cumming will play The Green Goblin. Both are interesting casting choices and quite talented actors. These aren’t people who would be struggling to find work otherwise and clearly chose to appear in this musical over working on other projects. So perhaps this musical isn’t the giant pile of crap that it initially seemed that it might be.

Taymor released a statement to the press commenting on the casting decisions and had the following to say about Evan Rachel Wood: ““Evan is unique: she is a young actress with incredible depth for both serious and comic drama in films and theatre. And on top of that, she has an extraordinary lyrical voice. We are thrilled to have her as our Mary Jane.” Taymor is obviously equally thrilled about casting Cumming and said the following about him: “He has such range and such charisma as a performer that I feel confident his Green Goblin will bring many surprises that will move and entertain us.”

Even though the concept of a U2 approved Spiderman musical sounds like the worse idea since…well…ever, the talent attached to the project so far is pretty damn impressive. Julie Taymor is one of the most visually talented and technically proficient theater directors alive, so if anyone can bring Spidey to the stage it’s here (see her Lion King musical for considerable evidence). And now two wonderful actors have been cast in Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming, both appearing in roles that should be perfectly suited to their talents.

I’m still worried about this production and don’t think it’s a great idea, but dammit Taymor keeps making it harder and harder to write this off as a disaster. I guess will have to wait until word starts to leak out from the previews when they start on February 25th to find out if this experiment worked. An opening date hasn’t been announced yet, but expect there to be a media blitz whenever this bad boy opens up on Broadway.

Transformers Made $200 Million Last Weekend

This morning Michael Bay woke up knowing that he is officially one of the most inexplicably successful and powerful directors in Hollywood. That man has proved time and time again that audiences will show up to your movie if you have a shitty script as long as you fill it with lots and lots of pretty explosions. Since opening last Wednesday his latest movie Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen has brought in an absurd $201 million (just slightly less than The Dark Knight earned over a five day weekend last year). That means that it should become the highest grossing movie of the year by next week. And the best part of the whole experience for Bay is that the movie wasn’t even that good. No one has ever done so well in Hollywood with so little interest in storytelling or art. Love him or hate him, you gotta respect Michael Bay for turning expensive braindead gloss into a multimillion dollar industry.

Michael Jackson Sketch Cut From Bruno

With the release of Sacha Baron Cohen’s highly anticipated Borat follow up Bruno only 10 days away, Cohen and his crew have had to dive back into the editing room for a last minute tweak. Apparently the film featured a seen in which Cohen interviewed Latoya Jackson about her brother and made some typically cruel jokes about the late king of pop. Out of respect for Jackson’s death the scene has been removed from the film for it’s theatrical release. Hopefully the seen will pop up on DVD. I’m sure it’s funny, but the timing just couldn’t be worse.



The Trailer For Ricky Gervais’ Invention Of Lying

And finally, what better way could there be for you to kill a little time on this dull Monday than by checking out the first trailer for Ricky Gervais’ upcoming film The Invention Of Lying. Gervais starred, co-wrote, and co-directed the movie that will feature an all-star comedy cast including the likes of Tina Fey, Christopher Guest, Louis CK, Jeffrey Tambor, Jason Bateman, Jonah Hill, and others. If this movie doesn’t turn out to be freaking hilarious, then everyone involved should just give up on comedy. This one should make you giggle.