Exclusive: Julie Taymor Files Suit Against “Spider Man” Producers
Exclusive: Showbiz411 has learned exclusively that director Julie Taymor has filed suit against the producers of the Broadway show she created, “Spider Man: Turn off the Dark.” I’m told that Taymor has named as the defendants Michael Cohl’s 8 Legged Productions. Taymor has been in arbitration negotiations for months trying to get some financial remuneration from the company. After creating the musical and working on it for nine years, she’s been paid just $150,000 for the production that carries a reported $70 million budget. Taymor was ousted by the producers last spring. Last week, the Tony Awards committee ruled that even though Taymor had been replaced as director of the show, only she qualified for a nomination. Developing…
Taymor’s attorney Charles Spada says: “As the lawsuit makes clear, the defendants have violated Ms. Taymor’s creative rights as an author of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Moreover, the producers have failed to compensate Ms. Taymor for their continued use of her work to date, despite the fact that the show has consistently played to capacity or near-capacity houses since its first public performance in November 2010. Ms. Taymor regrets that the producers’ actions have left her no choice but to resort to legal recourse to protect her rights. Ms. Taymor continues to support the talented and hardworking cast and crew, and she remains proud of her creative work on the production for over seven years, not only as an author, but as the director, mask designer, and collaborator.”
Author? Sorry, you overrated hack, but the authors of SPIDERMAN are Lee and Ditko. But because we’re nice people, we’ll let you be the author of Swiss Miss. After all, her character is such a wonderful addition to the Spidey mythos.
Brilliant. what is 150k divided by 9? She should probably join the protesters.
I think you all are missing the mark here. Julie Taymore CREATED the production and has not been paid a reasonable fee for HER creative materials. The current producers of the show are STEALING her production and her intellectual property. It’s no different than a mechanic being paid to fix your transmission or a carpenter being paid to build a house. She did the work and she deserves to be compensated for it. The $150,000 she has been paid amounts to less than $22,000 a year over the SEVEN years she worked on the project. She could have made more at Burger King.
bobc74:
Article implies $150,000 / 9 years = $17k / year
bobc74 – $150,000 for 9 years work. That’s $16,666 a year. Are you claiming she’s gotten rich off of this? That’s near poverty level, especially if she has people to care for. And I’m guessing she’s working 12 hour days easily on a show like this. So now we’re looking at minimum wage levels….
I hope she wins – clearly the idiot Bono and company started fiddling with the production and distorted it out of functionality and then went around egotistically and indiscreetly dissing everyone before it was finished. Their divaness made everything difficult and all insiders know this. I hope miss taymor gets the 10 million per year she deserves. You go girl.
Hey bobc.. did you think that maybe the 150k she received was all she got for 7 yrs work? Thats about 21500 per annum! not much is it – idiot
That’s only $150,000 in NINE YEARS, which equates to only about $16k/year, well below the poverty line. For a production with such a high budget and such high success, I think she very much has a case.
You go Taymor! I hope you get the Tony nomination too! :)
-shnar
bobc74: $150K over 9 years is $16.6K a year… really greedy.
bobc74….I love the definitions we have for “greed” nowadays. Anyone that works hard and makes a good living is obviously greedy, right. Using your own model as the standard, I’m willing to bet that you’re pretty greedy too. How much income have you generated over the past 9 years? If you knew how to do math, you’d realize that $150K over 9 years on the project amounts to less than $17K per year. I’m not defending her or her lawsuit, but at least she was being productive, creative and earning that $150K….unlike your beloved protestors
$150,000 for nine years Swfit. That’s less than $17,000 a year or less than minimum wage for directing a $70MM play.
$150,000 for nine years of work on a production like that. I would sue as well.
I agree. She should be compensated. The jury may feel that 150k is adequate or not, but she is entitled to enforce her rights. The people leaving these comments are marxists socialist. They should work for free themselves but not force others to work for free.
9 Years and only $150,000.00…. for a production which has a budget of $70,000,000 and could potentially earn more than a billion dollars?
Yep, she’s definitely got a case.
sue sue sue sue sue sue sue sue sue sue sue sue sue sue sue sue. who’s gonna sue next? its anybody’s game.
I think if you do the math, things look a bit different. $150,000 divided by 9 years = $16,667/yr. Considering the show is her creation, and she couldn’t get a second job while working on this one, she doesn’t seem so greedy now does she? Why shouldn’t she be compensated for her product?
$150k for 9 years…That is very little renumeration for all that work, and for those who cannot/will not do the math, that is less than $20k/year. For anyone who has every lived in or near NYC, that is not enough money to eat, let alone find a place to live, other than a large cardboard box outside the theater.
150k over 9 years….. If you think that’s greed, you should be out there marching so you can get something for nothing too….
BOBC74 $150K over 9 years is $16K a year. You must not be serious, or you did not read the article.
Really people, if she has a contract and they violated it, she has every right to protect her Intellectual property just like any other artist, regardless of how much she has made already. What is not FAIR is other people profiting from the creativity and work of others.
The Great White Way hasn’t had an original thought in moons.
She was paid $150,00 for NINE years worth of work… That’s almost minimum wage if she were working 40 hours a week. I wouldn’t call that greed. She deserves to be compensated. It sounds like the producers of this show have been screwing her from the beginning.
@ bobc74:
$150,000 for 9 years of work is not much compensation. Would you work for under $17,000 per year? That hardly counts as “greed.”
$150,000 given for 9 years of work is only $16,700 a year. That’s minimum wage or less.
After creating the musical and working on it for nine years, she’s been paid just $150,000 for the production that carries a reported $70 million budget..
looks like she was making $16,666.00 a year for 9 years….Seems to me the OWS supporters need to get their math skills up
Hmmm… $150,000.00 divided by 9 yrs of work is $16,666.66 per year. I believe she does deserve more than that as the “creator” of the show. To bobe74: As she did try arbitration first I don’t think one could consider this as greed. It is just compensation. To Evan: Make your own. To Justin: Do you attend anything for fun? Sporting events? We should shut down anything YOU don’t like? By the way, this website is Showbiz 411 – why are you here?
$150,000 for 9 years work? I’ll bet YOU wouldn’t work for less than $17k/year! That’s not even part time hamburger flipper money. The entertainment business is carnivorous, but sucking a creator like Julie Taymor dry really makes 8 Legged Productions a tarantula.
Julie Taymor deserves to be paid for her creative genius by the businessmen who are making money by the truckload off of this Broadway spectacular. We saw Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark in February and it is amazing in every detail. Bono’s original music, the exceptionally talented singers, the comic-book scenery, the high-wire special effects and dancing all make for a unique and entertaining production that is well worth seeing. 5 stars and kudos to Julie Taymor for her achievement. She deserves at least ten times more than $150,000 for her seven years of work on this Broadway sensation.
What a fucking disaster. Is this shit still going on and when are we gonna stop hearing about this broadway crap, someone please close that place down for the good of everyone. Honestly, who the hell wants to watch anything from a place called Broadway?
I would like for Julie Taymor to make me a sandwich. That’d be great.
Well, since she’s ONLY earned $150,000 then I guess she has a right to sue. Oh, by the way, what’s her address? Some of the Occupy Wall Street people might need to protest her greed.
Why do people think they can rip people off and get away with it in this country? Oh yeah, we are in the United States where laws are passed and enforced to protect con men, executive fraudsters, murders, thieves and child rapists. Saudi Arabia has real justice, America sucks.
Why does she, “REGRET ………….LEFT HER NO CHOICE…………TO PROTECT HER LEGAL RIGHTS ?” I say sue the bastards.
This is her right.