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Julie Taymor and Bono’s ‘Spider-Man’ Musical Actually ‘Across the Universe 2’?

We would have turned him upside down, but our photo editor ran out of time.Photo Illustration: Courtesy of Sony

Apparently the first reading of Julie Taymor and Bono’s Spider-Man musical has happened, and Taymor cast the two leads straight out of her Beatles movie Across the Universe. That film’s Jim Sturgess played Peter Parker, and Evan Rachel Wood played Mary Jane. E! claims that the two actors are Taymor’s favorites, but we think (hope?) that she just used them for the first informal reading and is planning to recast the roles for production. Because if you were going to cast movie stars, you could surely get bigger movie stars, and if you weren’t going to cast movie stars, you could get actual theater actors.

Any Vulture readers attend the reading? And who would you cast as Peter and Mary Jane? Let us know in the comments!

Spider-Man: From Webslinger…to Broadway Singer? [E!]
Related: Look Out! Here Comes the Edge and Bono! [Daily Intel]

Julie Taymor and Bono’s ‘Spider-Man’ Musical Actually ‘Across the Universe 2’?