"Kiss of the Spider Woman" Teaser: Jennifer Lopez Transforms into a Fantastical Diva in Bill Condon’s Bold Musical Drama with Diego Luna and Tonatiuh
Jennifer Lopez dazzles as the dangerous diva Ingrid Luna in this haunting and glamorous musical, where political oppression meets Hollywood fantasy.
Bill Condon, the director of the musical hit Dreamgirls and the live-action adaptation of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, is back with yet another big-screen musical adaptation that appears lush with Technicolor-hued fantasies, adorned with colorful costumes and set pieces that rival old Hollywood musicals. But don’t let the glitz and glamour fool you. This is a dark story with a sharp layer of political commentary that cuts to the core of governmental oppression and its intrusion into personal freedoms.
And yet, it’s also a vehicle for Jennifer Lopez to do what she does best: look glamorous, show off some of her serious dance moves, and sing a little tune here and there. It just might be the role she was meant to play.
Here's the teaser trailer for Kiss of the Spider Woman, the forthcoming big-screen adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical inspired by the acclaimed 1976 novel by Argentine author Manuel Puig, which itself was based on the Oscar-winning 1985 Brazilian drama starring Sonia Braga, Raul Julia, and William Hurt.
Fresh from his stint starring in the acclaimed Star Wars series Andor, which ended its two-season run last month, Diego Luna seems to be on a hot streak as he takes on one of the lead roles as Valentín, a political prisoner with a cause and a will that won’t be broken even behind bars.
The book on which the film is based was inspired by the real-life military dictatorship of Argentina in the 1970s where the government actively hunted down any political dissidents and imprisoned revolutionaries for their views and stance against the regime.
Valentín is the role Raul Julia famously played in the 1985 film, which is now portrayed by Luna. He’s thrown into a cell with Molina, a flamboyant window dresser serving time for “public indecency.” Molina is played by openly queer Mexican-American actor Tonatiuh (from the Netflix film Carry-On, and the Starz series Vida). Again in the previous 1985 film, Molina was portrayed by William Hurt, who won an Oscar for the role.
Valentín and Molina are prison cellmates who suffer a great amount of abuse from guards, forcing them to form an unlikely bond. As a way to survive the harsh realities of a brutal prison system, Molina begins to narrate the plots of his favorite Hollywood musicals starring his screen idol, the dazzling Ingrid Luna, a.k.a. The Spider Woman, played by none other than Jennifer Lopez. In the 1985 film, she was played by Brazilian beauty Sonia Braga.
The character of Ingrid Luna is a diva and a dream. She is what Molina aspires to be but also acts as a gateway to an escapist fantasy world of Hollywood dreams, a place far from the cruel truths of living in a system that deems the most vulnerable unworthy of any sort of compassion or mercy. But it's also a system where even the closest bonds can be weaponized and used for manipulation.
Bill Condon writes and directs the film, which is based on the musical by the multiple Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally (Master Class, Ragtime) and composer/lyricist team John Kander and Fred Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago). Condon, who last directed two films starring Ian McKellen—the con artist thriller The Good Liar and the aging Sherlock Holmes mystery Mr. Holmes—has not directed a musical since 2017's Beauty and the Beast, which was the same year he also co-wrote the Hugh Jackman musical The Greatest Showman.
But from the looks of this new teaser, Condon doesn't seem to have lost a step, as it oozes old-school showbiz shimmer, with J Lo sashaying her way into what might be a busy award season for her, and also Luna and Tonatiuh.
Kiss of the Spider Woman is due to open in theaters October 10th.
