Jennifer Lopez to Star in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Film — Page 32

The film is now out digitally.

BJR said: "(Also, Molina's stubborn shallowness/vapidity is part of Puig's story, as it's self-protection.)"

I read an interesting interivew with Puig where he talked about not liking the 1985 movie because Molina was made into such a depressing character. He said, "In the book, the character of Molina is full of joy and life...Hurt created a neurtoic and tortured character who had nothing to do with Molina, who was a very joyful person, among other things, and who did not feel the Calvanistic guilt that was attributed to him in the picture."

I agree with you that it's a form of self-protection, but I thought Puig's comments were really interesting.

Updated On: 11/11/25 at 01:13 PM

I wanted to love this but ultimately I found the change in tone and changes to the score so significant that I barely recognised the musical anymore. It wasn't just that they 'cut songs' there are radical changes to the characters, story and tone.

I enjoyed it and happy this exists but I want someone else to have a go at adapting this, which I guess will never happen now :'(.

Updated On: 11/13/25 at 03:28 AM

BrodyFosse123 said: "The lack of interest in this film adaptation pretty much just squashed any investors from backing any potential revival of this musical adaptation. The Oscar winning 1985 film adaptation will remain the go-to adaptation of Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel."

RE: potential future investors, I'm not 100% certain of your prediction (in a maybe/maybe not way). As long as people can remember Chita Rivera's performance, I retain hope.

As for the "Oscar winning" film from 1985, (and this is pedantic thought, admittedly), the film did not receive any Oscars. William Hurt did.

It was 1985 and it was considered "brave" and "groundbreaking" for a heterosexual male to play Gay. Basically, and IMO, he got a trophy for participation (like in pee-wee sports). I thought his performance was clumsy and completely unauthentic. I hated it.

But, 'ya know, "Thanks for trying"... Here's a trophy for your efforts.

everythingtaboo said: "I doubt it'll ever see a Broadway stage again, but I can certainly hope it renews enough interest for a revival in theWest End, or at least more regional productions."

You're not going to see regionals any time soon as they've been trying to raise funds for a Bway revival.

Very curious to see if that still is true though...

BJR said: "everythingtaboo said: "I doubt it'll ever see a Broadway stage again, but I can certainly hope it renews enough interest for a revival in the West End, or at least more regional productions."

You're not going to see regionals any time soon as they've been trying to raise funds for a Bway revival.

Very curious to see if that still is true though..."

It's probably more likely that Spider Woman would be revived by Encores! or Roundabout Theatre Company.

John Adams said: "
It was 1985 and it was considered "brave" and "groundbreaking" for a heterosexual male to play Gay. Basically, and IMO, he got a trophy for participation (like in pee-wee sports). I thought his performance was clumsy and completely unauthentic. I hated it.

But, 'ya know, "Thanks for trying"... Here's a trophy for your efforts."

Agreed, and as mentioned above, Puig wasn't a fan either. Honestly, I don't think this movie musical will really have an effect one way or the other as to if a Broadway revival would be done (OK, if it had surprised everyone and been a genuine box office hit MAYBE that would push things forward, but I don't think the reverse is true.)

Updated On: 11/15/25 at 08:27 PM

I purchased a digital copy last night, and watched the film again. I enjoyed it even more than the first time. Tonatiuh and Diego, or whatever the rough trade's name was were excellent. And I will say, Jennifer was good too. She was probably better in this than in anything she has done. Granted she is no Chita Rivera nor even Vanessa Williams (who was fab and has articulation for daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaays), but J-ho was pretty darn good.

I think J-Lo still should have carried her butt to that Savannah Film Festival with pride and gotten her little award. Sometimes we have to get over our ego. This film did not do well, NO ONE KNEW OF IT. There was no budget and no advertising and no word of mouth. My friends knew nothing or heard nothing about it until I started "advertising it" and dragged them to the theater (where we were the only guests). This was my favorite stage musical, so I had to see it.

The film was overly glossy and "pretty", but it was good. I felt, somehow, on Broadway the prison scenes played out as more violent and dark, and then Valentin had enough of Molina and went the F off on him (I Draw The Line - bitch will YOU EVER SHUT UP). It seemed like this Valentin was softer from the beginning? The prison seemed softer, boys were out crocheting in the yard and playing mandolin love songs and such...

All I know is Tonatiuh was otherworldly. If he is lucky enough to get another role in the future - as he should - I think he has a chance at being a big star.

Updated On: 11/14/25 at 04:00 AM

It's already available on Prime Video.

joevitus said: "It's already available on Prime Video."

Yeah, it’s available to rent or buy but it’s not streaming as part of Prime Video’s free-to-watch options.

SeanD2 said: "There's also AVOD (or sometimes ASVOD) which is Ad Supported VOD via platforms like Tubi or PlutoTV which don't require a subscription. Basic breakdown is:
PVOD = Premium VOD = $19.99 rental
VOT = Video On Demand = $4.99 rental
SVOD = Subscription VOD = included with paid subscription to service
AVOD = Ad Supported VOD = included with free service"

Thanks for the more complete list of categories!

I doubt it's an "official" category, but there's also another one that I call, "ASSVOD" (...the acronym is exceptionally fitting, IMO...): Ad Supported Subscription Video On Demand.

...basically that's Amazon's current, and blatantly hyper-greedy model where you pay for a subscription, but the vast majority of entertainment is ad-supported.

...I can't even find the "Free To Me" filter button anymore...

Daisy Crumpler said: "I'm so sad and disappointed in how little fanfare there was for this film.

I'm a complete civilian, but seems like the producers went out of their way to give the film a wider theatrical release instead of partnering with a streaming service. The musical numbers definitely deserve to be seen on a big screen, but I wonder if they had partnered with Netflix or Amazon initially, would there have been a larger ad campaign? Streaming services will sometimes put a film in theatres for limited release (usually for awards contention) before making it available at home. Maybe the push for wide release in cinemas was actually the wrong move?

Of course, at the end of the day, it's all about money so who knows."

As Bill Condon recently talked about in an interview with Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood, "So many movies are made by streamers and they don't like musicals. They tried, it didn't work for them. Netflix famously has this metric that, you know, 'when do people turn it off?'. There are people who would stumble onto a movie, not know it was a musical, the first number occurs, and off. Not everybody, but there's enough people that it scares them away from making them. So that's a huge kind of area where they're not getting made." Pete then responded with "Musicals should be seen in a theater, first of all. It isn't designed for streaming. Especially the sound, everything you pour into this from a technical standpoint, is great to see with people."

John Adams said: "Jeffrey Karasarides said: "As Bill Condon recently talked about in an interview with Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood, 'So many movies are made by streamers and they don't like musicals. They tried, it didn't work for them. Netflix famously has this metric that, you know, 'when do people turn it off?'."

I don't know that I agree w/Mr. Condon.

"Hamilton" did very well for Disney+. "West Side Story" was a pretty anticipated streamer, and so was "Wicked" for both Peacock and Amazon.

The Netflix metric (subscriber behavior) that Condon cites is certainly real, but I disagree with his implication that it only occurs regarding musicals. He could have substituted any genre of film that Netflix offers and (realistically) applied it in the same way."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hamilton came in at #3 of the Top 20 SVOD movie debuts of 2020 in their 7-day launch by Screen Engine’s count while The Prom came in at #7. I remember when Tick, Tick...BOOM! debuted on Netflix the following year, it was in the Top 10. Matilda was the number one movie on Netflix when it premiered on Christmas Day in 2022. Wicked was in the top 10 most streamed movies on Peacock for a while. Not to mention that the capture of the West End production of Frozen was in the top 10 most streamed content on Disney+ in its first few weeks. Granted, we'll probably never know how many subscribers watched those from start to finish.

I think Condon was mainly referring to people turning off movies on Netflix after they realize that it's a musical as example. He didn't intend to imply that it's the only genre where it occurs.