NYTimes.com: A legal settlement has still not been signed in the court fight between the producers of the Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” and their former director, Julie Taymor, despite a late-October deadline set by a federal judge overseeing the case, according to a spokesman for the show and two other people with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
4 comments:
To me, this court battle is a little bit ridiculous. The lawsuit has been going on for so long, and the drama has literally been just as great behind the scenes as it has been onstage, with the Broadway run of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Honestly, I can see both sides of this argument, but I think that the producers of the musical should just settle and give Taymor what she wants. This lawsuit is creating, to me, so much negative publicity to this show. I know that I would never really care to see this production because of all the drama that has occurred along the way. The creative team of this musical was clearly not on the same page, and while the show may be popular on Broadway, I think it is surviving off of its publicity, which is something I do not respect. Hopefully this case settles and we can stop hearing about the drama that transpired behind the scenes with this musical.
I agree with Jess. I tried to post a very similar comment last night, but the Internet crashed. I think this lawsuit needs to end. It is causing way too much of the wrong kind of publicity for the show. I, like Jess, have no desire to see this show because of the way in which it finally opened on Broadway. I do not agree with all of the decisions that we made in the process and I believe that the amount of money that was poured into this musical is obsessive and over the top. No musical needs to waste that much money... And definitely not one with such a mediocre soundtrack and unoriginal story. I think e producers need to cave and give Taymor what she deserves.
Part of me can't believe this is still going on, but the other part of me realizes what a sticky situation this is. How do you decide how much money someone gets for artistic contributions to a show? And, now that the documentary is thrown into the mix, how do you determine royalties for the reproduction of those contributions on film? I'm sure there is some sort of formula out there for royalty rates, but this is a special situation. It's likely that the negotiation is taking so long because Taymor wants more than the producers are willing to give her. I just hope the negotiations don't go on for so long that it gets to the point that a jury is brought into the case, though. That would be a terrible waste of money. The producers and Taymor have enough money as it is. They should be able to come to a reasonable agreement. Then again, I tend to be optimistic and think that people should stop being greedy. I understand that the producers don't want to lose more money than they have to, and I understand that Taymor should absolutely be compensated for her work, but COME ON. This is getting ridiculous. I hope they can all come to an agreement before any more money is spent on this drawn-out trial.
As everyone else has said, this is all just ridiculous. Too much money, too much drama, and Taymor should be compensated for the work she DID do for them. However having just come out of a discussion with one of our teachers regarding Taymor's often difficult disposition, it is interesting to see things from the other point of view. In the end, however, this all needs to stop. The show is finally up, the producers should be happy with that... and compensate those who helped it get there.
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