New images offer a closer look at Kiss of the Spider Woman. The upcoming movie was directed by Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, 2017’s Beauty and the Beast) and is adapted from the 1992 musical based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Manuel Puig. The movie, which is set in 1981, stars Jennifer Lopez as Ingrid Luna, the imaginary movie star persona of gay Argentinian prisoner Luis Molina (Tonatiuh), who frequently escapes into a fantasy world. Meanwhile, his real world is shaken up by the arrival of a new prisoner, the Marxist Valentin Arregui (Diego Luna).
Vanity Fair has now shared a set of exclusive first-look images from Kiss of the Spider Woman. One takes place entirely in reality, showing Luis and Valentin standing together in the prison yard. Another seems to take place completely in the fantasy world, with Ingrid in a sleek costume smoking a cigarette beneath a spotlight. The final image blends reality and fantasy, showing Ingrid in a bob wig in what seems to be the prisoners’ cell, about to share a kiss. See the full-size images below:
In addition to sharing these images, Vanity Fair spoke with Condon about the project. The director called Kiss of the Spider Woman “a unicorn movie,” celebrating its unique approach to genre. Read his full quote below:
It’s trying to do something different from anything you’ve seen. This feels like a unicorn movie to me. It’s very hard to actually distill and describe.
What This Means For Kiss Of The Spider Woman
Bill Condon’s Career Is Coming Full Circle
Kiss of the Spider Woman bears a more than superficial set of similarities to the Best Picture-winning movie musical Chicago, a 2002 тιтle that had a similarly long chain of adaptations, as it was based on a 1975 musical that itself was based on a 1926 stage play. That story follows a group of women in prison who have all been accused of murder, frequently seeing these characters break into song in a variety of lurid fantasy sequences. While the movie was directed by Rob Marshall, the screenplay was written by Bill Condon himself.
Chicago was nominated for 13 Academy Awards overall (including a Best Adapted Screenplay nod for Bill Condon), winning six.
These images highlight the fact that Condon’s directorial career is coming full circle after more than two decades. Though he didn’t helm Chicago, he has both written and directed Kiss of the Spider Woman, and the way that the environment of the prison looks entirely different from the fantasy world inside Luis’ head shows that he internalized all the right lessons from writing Chicago when crafting his upcoming 2025 movie.
Our Take On The Kiss Of The Spider Woman Images
Jennifer Lopez Is Marking A Career First
Although her work in the 1997 music biopic Selena is what helped launch her career, Jennifer Lopez has never starred in a proper movie musical. Kiss of the Spider Woman seems to be giving her that chance at last, as the images featuring her character draw their aesthetic from classic musicals, especially the work of Bob Fosse, which could allow the multihyphenate star a chance to show off her chops in the most unique and satisfying way yet.
Source: Vanity Fair
