According to Variety, Golden Globe nominee Jennifer Lopez has signed on for titular role in the upcoming film adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman, based on the Broadway musical of the same name. Lopez will be portraying an imaginary woman named Aurora.
This marks Lopez’s venture into the musical genre. However, the singer-actress previously starred in a biographical drama about the life of Tejano music star Selena Quintanilla-Perez.
What to expect in Kiss of the Spider Woman?
“Set in an Argentinian prison in 1981, the film centers around Luis Molina, a gay hairdresser serving an eight-year sentence for allegedly corrupting a minor,” reads the synopsis. “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.”
Kiss of the Spider Woman will be written and directed by Bill Condon, who’s best known for his work on 2002’s Chicago, 2006’s Dreamgirls movie and 2017’s The Greatest Showman. The adaptation will feature music by John Kander and Fred Ebb, based on the novel by Argentine writer Manuel Puig and the book of the musical by Terrence McNally. Casting is currently underway for the one of the main leads, who is being described as “an openly queer and effeminate gay man, but may be on the non-binary/trans femme spectrum.”
The project will be executive produced by Lopez, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, and Benny Medina for Nuyorican Productions. Producers are Barry Josephson, Tom Kirdahy, Greg Yolen and Matt Geller. Production is expected to begin in April 2024 in New Jersey.
