If Sundance was looking to raise the temperature in this year’s festival they found it Sunday night with Jennifer Lopez and the feature take of the Broadway musical Kiss of the Spider Woman which played a packed and explosive Eccles house with plenty of turnaways and buyers in attendance such as Searchlight and Mubi in the house. The movie is up for sale from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity.
Taking the stage, Jennifer Lopez, filmmaker Bill Condon and big screen discovery Tonatiuh (who plays Molina) received a standing ovation. When Sundance Director Eugene Hernandez said Tonatiuh’s name again on stage, the entire Eccles roared. “What a way to get to know you!” beamed Hernandez.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life,” Lopez told the crowd who remembered watching West Side Story as a kid. It was her goal to always star in musicals and the movie gave her the chance to do it.
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Far and away a marquee title in this year’s lineup with Lopez starring in the role made famous by Chita Rivera in the early 90s musical and Sonia Braga in the 1985 Oscar winning film. Lopez plays Aurora/Ingrid Luna and the Spider Woman, all figments of the imagination of Molina, who has been jailed during a time of dictatorship in Argentina. He’s in for an indecent act, and his revolutionary cellmate, Valentin, played by Diego Luna.
For Bill Condon, the independently financed feature musical repped a big homecoming to the festival which launched his career back in 1998 with Gods and Monsters.
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