Audiences haven’t heeded early reviews that panned the blockbuster musical—they’re actually attending in greater numbers—but producers for Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark got the message (or perhaps it was the focus groups). Deadline reports that they’ve hired Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who’s actually worked for Marvel as a writer on the Spider-Man comics, to lend the $65 million spectacle what one critic says it’s sorely lacking “a comprehensible story with any momentum.” But wait, doesn’t the show finally open in less than a month?
Yes, as of the latest and supposedly final postponement, opening night is scheduled for March 15, although with the recent addition of a new aerial finale and now, a presumably fairly extensive (given how broke the story seems to be) rewrite of the book by Julie Taymor and Glen Berger, perhaps another delay is in the works? Or maybe this just confirms the notion that many critics have expressed, that Turn Off The Dark shouldn’t be looked at as a finished work of artertainment, but as a perpetually tweaked and tinkered-with work-in-progress.
Aguirre-Sacasa’s other writing credits include HBO’s Big Love and another superhero musical, based on the Superman series, that was a hit during its recent run in Dallas. If he’s going to do for the web-slinger what he did for the man of steel, he’s got about four weeks to do it. (CultureMonster, Photo)