Director and stars weave musical web in “Kiss of the Spider Woman"

Director and stars weave musical web in “Kiss of the Spider Woman"

The highly-anticipated movie musical "Kiss of the Spider Woman" will be released in theaters nationwide Friday. The film is based on the 1976 novel and the Tony-winning stage version, and stars Jennifer Lopez as a Hollywood screen legend who inspires a pair of prisoners in 1980s Argentina. Oscar-winning writer and director Bill Condon says he considers the movie a "bookend" to his acclaimed 1998 film "Gods and Monsters."

A Broadway musical gets the full ‘Technicolor treatment’ in the new big-screen adaptation of "Kiss of the Spider Woman."

The film — based on the 1976 novel by Manuel Puig and the Tony-winning stage version which followed — stars Jennifer Lopez as a singing and dancing Hollywood screen legend who inspires a pair of prisoners in 1980s Argentina. 

For Oscar-winning writer and director Bill Condon, "Kiss of the Spider Woman" is something of a return to roots, recalling his work on the 1998 James Whale biopic "Gods and Monsters"

"I do really feel that this movie is the bookend to that movie," says Condon. "I wrote it in the same way — made it independently, all those things — but thematically, absolutely. James Whale is a complete outsider as a gay man in Hollywood in the 30s into the 50s who is trying to find his place in this world that he loves. And I think Molina is very, very similar to that."

Molina is brought to life in an acclaimed performance by newcomer Tonatiuh, who spends much of "Spider Woman" in a small cell with co-star Diego Luna.

"Bill gifted us something that actors normally don’t get in film: we shot the entire prison sequence in order," says Tonatiuh. "So, the first time that Molina meets Valentín was the first time that Diego and I saw each other in full character. And with every passing scene, the facade — the persona, the reality of those characters — started to drop. As actors, there’s this metanarrative that we learned to depend on each other. We needed one another in order to get through those days."

"Kiss of the Spider Woman" will be released in theatres nationwide by Roadside Attractions on Friday, October 10th. For more information on the film, click here — and click the video player in this article to hear more of our interviews with the filmmaker and star.