Monday, November 15th 2010

News:  U2

U2′s Spider-Man Musical Is Exactly As Cool As You’d Expect

By Fernando Scoczynski Filho

When the X-Men movie was released in 2000, decidedly not sucking, Hollywood decided that it was time to reboot all sorts of super-hero franchises and make shitloads of cash. One franchise has remained particularly profitable throughout the years: Spider-Man. We’ve all been bombarded with a series of movies, cartoons, video-games, et al., for the better part of the past 10 years. Certainly, you’ve heard about a Broadway musical scored by U2‘s Bono & The Edge, and Vogue just provided some visual clues on what it will look like.

Entitled Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, the musical cost $60 million (the most expensive of its kind, ever), and has already suffered several delays, along with reports of actors harmed in dangerous stunts. Previews for the show begin this month, and, thanks to Annie Leibovitz’s (heavily Photoshopped) photography, we got a look at what it’s going to look like. Brace yourselves:

We had hoped the Glee-fever of this Spidey act could be limited to the singing. Alas, they even managed to gay-up Carnage. What we’ve heard from Bono & The Edge’s score, when performed by U2 has been good. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound particularly strong in the voice of the lead actor.

Looking on the bright side, a few good U2 B-sides might come out of this, and the obvious backlash from the fans will hopefully send the new movie in the right direction. You can catch Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark in January 2011 (or not).