Since it’s conception over a year ago, there seems to be absolutely no good news coming out of Julie Taymor’s upcoming Broadway adaptation of Spider-Man, unfortunately titled Turn Off The Dark. The film has gone through two budget slashes, several casting changes, and now a slew of injuries and technical errors during live performances.

It seems that yet another (the fourth reported) actor has been injured during a live performance. This one took place last night and actually made it about 80% of the way without an incident. Then this happened. From THR:

Monday’s night performance was stopped short after an unidentified performer — either the actor playing the title character or his stunt double — fell about eight to 10 feet during the final moments of the show, the New York Times reported. Some equipment also fell into the audience when the fall happened.

“He fell several feet from a platform approximately seven minutes before the end of the performance, and the show was stopped,” a statement from the musical said. “All signs were good as he was taken to the hospital for observation.”

One audience member told the Times that the accident happened during a scene when Spider-Man was rescuing his love interest, Mary Jane, while she dangled from a rope attached to a bridge. The witness said he saw the actor playing Spider-Man appear to trip and fall from the bridge into an open pit at the end of the stage.

At this rate, the film has hurt more musical actors and cost more money than any other cross breeding of comic books and any form of mass media. It looks like just some things aren’t meant to adapt.

Shakespeare’s The Tempest may be one of the most contrived and story-heavy piece of work in his collection, but that’s not stopping director Julie Taymor, who plans on bringing a direct adaptation of the play to theaters next year.

Yes, this is the same Julie Taymor who is begrudgingly bringing Spider-Man to Broadway, but she’s also the director behind Across the Universe, which introduced a whole new generation to the music of The Beatles, and adapted Shakespeare once before with Anthony Hopkins in Titus.

Now she’s at it again, with a new gang of players including Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Djimon Hounsou, David Strathairn, Chris Cooper, and Alan Cumming.

The premise is a bit confusing, so we won’t try to bog you down with the details. Instead, we have two great clips featuring Mirren, Hounsou, and Brand, which you can check out after the jump.

Catch Disney’s Tempest in theaters this Friday.

Julie Taymor has made quite a lot of progress in Hollywood in the past few years. If bringing Across The Universe to theaters and Beatles music to a whole new audience wasn’t enough, she was one of the driving forces to bring Spider-Man to Broadway (whether we want it or not). Now Taymor is bringing her unique knack for stage adaptation with Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

The movie looks like an intense music video, with elements of mythology, magic, and yes, Russell Brand. Here’s the full synopsis for those who fell asleep during that 9th grade English class.

In her big-screen adaptation of Shakespeare’s mystical thriller “The Tempest,” Academy Award(R)-nominated Julie Taymor (“Across the Universe,” “Frida,” “Titus”) brings an original dynamic to the story by changing the gender of the sorcerer Prospero into the sorceress Prospera, portrayed by Oscar(R) winner Helen Mirren (“The Queen”). Prospera’s journey spirals through vengeance to forgiveness as she reigns over a magical island, cares for her young daughter, Miranda, and unleashes her powers against shipwrecked enemies in this exciting, masterly mix of romance, tragicomedy and the supernatural.

Mirren is followed by an almost Expendable-sized cast such as Alfred Molina, Djimon Hounsou, David Strathairn, Chris Cooper, Alan Cumming, Ben Whishaw, Reeve Carney, Felicity Jones, and Tom Conti.

The film is expected to hit theaters on December 10th, but you can see what we’re going on about with the first trailer after the jump. Enjoy!

It’s like watching a bad soap opera when we report on the on-again, off-again relationship between Broadway and the upcoming Spider-Man musical titled Turn Off The Dark.

The show was originally slated for release earlier this year, and got all the way up to the point of casting Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming as Mary Jane and Green Goblin, respectively. Right after that point, the budget ran out, and the production was put on the shelf.

Then, months later, we were told that it was back on, now with a much smaller budget and a brand new, unknown cast. Now, as we get closer to the musical’s opening night on December 21st, we’re seeing more of the music and costumes (as you can see in the form of Electro to the right).

In a recent ABC News piece, Bono and The Edge, who wrote the music for the show, talked about the performance and even gave us a taste of one of the songs performed by Reeve Carney, who will be portraying Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the upcoming production.

Check out the full performance after the jump, along with a larger shot of Electro’s costume, and even a look at what Cumming would have had to wear if he stayed on as Green Goblin.

It looks like after complications with casting, an overblown budget, and a scripting problem with over four proposed villains in the show, the broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is still going ahead, even though they announced production would stop. Last month, producers stated that they could not continue with the show due to “unexpected cashflow problems”, but now tickets are going on sale at the end of October. What’s the deal?

The show has plenty of star-power behind it, from Julie Taymor (Across The Universe) directing, to Bono and The Edge writing the music, even to Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming being cast as Mary Jane and the Green Goblin, respectively, the producers feel that the show will do well enough financially to go forward. From the NY Times:

A spokesperson told Playbill that tickets would go on sale Oct. 31. After the lead producer, Hello Entertainment, experienced cash-flow problems, modest construction on the musical resumed at the Hilton Theater this month. Last month producers said they expected performances to begin on Feb. 25, with Julie Taymor directing.