Jennifer Lopez will star in a musical remake of “Kiss of the Spider-Woman,” to be directed by Bill Condon.
Based on Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel of the same title, ‘Kiss’ was first released as a film in 1985. Directed by Hector Babenco, it garnered critical acclaim and received four Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, the latter category won by the film’s lead, William Hurt.
The 1992 Broadway version of the film seems to have inspired Condon in making his own big screen version of it. Deadline confirms that a Spring 2024 production start is being eyed for ‘Kiss.’
Plot details —
Set in an Argentinian prison in 1981, Lopez will play the titular role, a woman named Aurora created by Luis Molina, a gay hairdresser serving an eight-year sentence for allegedly corrupting a minor. To escape the horrors of his imprisonment, Molina imagines movies starring Aurora as a classic silver screen diva, including a role of the spider woman, who kills her prey with a kiss. Molina’s life is upended when a Marxist, Valentin Arregui Paz, is brought into his cell, and the two form an unlikely bond.
Condon, an Oscar winner, was once a much praised director. His first couple of films included “Gods and Monsters,” “Kinsey,” and “Dreamgirls,” and then Hollywood came calling — his collapse started when he decided to helm the last two ‘Twilight’ movies.
He’s also one of the preeminent directors to hire if you want to make a movie musical; he wrote the screenplay for 2002’s “Chicago,” directed 2006’s “Dreamgirls,” directed 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast,” and co-wrote 2017’s “The Greatest Showman.”
Meanwhile, Lopez is coming off her Netflix action hit “The Mother.” The question that should be asked is … has Lopez ever been in a good movie? Yes, she has, but you’d have to go back 25 years, with her sultry turn in Steven Soderbergh’s “Out of Sight.”