Things seem to be looking up a bit for Julie Taymor. Her highly anticipated big-screen take on “The Tempest” starring Helen Mirren, Chris Cooper, Felicity Jones, David Strathairn, Djimon Hounsou, Reeve Carney, Alan Cumming, Alfred Molina, Ben Whishaw and Russell Brand, has found its way out of post-Miramax hell and will finally be released by Touchstone Pictures in December. And her oft-delayed and troubled stage production of “Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark,” — even though it’s now minus two leads in Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming — does seem to be on its way to hit Broadway this fall. With that in mind, Taymor is looking to the future.
The director wants to tackle a film adaptation of the musical “Transposed Heads” for her next project. Taymor originally produced the musical back in 1986, which, based on the retelling of an Indian fable by Thomas Mann, tells the story of Shirdaman and Nantha, who behead themselves, find their heads, return on each other’s respective bodies and meet Kali. For the project, Taymor is rounding up old friends: Glenn Berger (“Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark”) is penning the screenplay and Elliot Goldenthal, who did the music for Taymor’s original stage production will take on those duties again here (Goldenthal also worked on Taymor’s “Frida” and “Across The Universe”). She wants to shoot the film in India and New York.
If this happens, it might be a while off. Of course, Taymor needs to finish her work on ‘Spiderman” before even starting on “Transposed Heads,” but with Taymor’s last outing, “Across The Universe,” fizzling at the box office, we would imagine financing might be difficult to pull together. That said, given the subject matter, it wouldn’t surprise us if Taymor found deep pockets from Eastern investors. Either way, any time Taymor is involved in a new project, we’re interested. She’s hands-down one of the most visually arresting and interesting filmmakers currently working and her audacious vision is always worth checking out, so we’re curious to see what’s next in store.
