Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was a Broadway musical production that premiered way back in 2010. Initially, there was a great deal of excitement about the wall-crawler's stage debut, especially with Julie Taymor directing and Bono and The Edge of U2 tapped to provide lyrics.
Unfortunately, it faced a troubled and tumultuous development process, including numerous delays, technical difficulties, and safety concerns during rehearsals and performances.
Indeed, it became notorious for the high number of injuries sustained by cast members, leading to several cast changes and, eventually, mixed reviews. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark also took significant liberties with the source material, putting a bizarre spin on Peter Parker and his greatest foes.
The musical still had a relatively lengthy run on Broadway, closing after four years with a massive financial loss. It was a spectacle - in both good and bad ways - and now, a movie about the ill-fated project has hit the Black List.
That's an annual survey which highlights the best unproduced screenplays in the film industry. The Black List helps unrecognized scripts gain attention, often leading to them being produced; it's also a way for studios to discover budding writers.
Boy Falls From Sky was written by Hunter Toro, whose work includes Digman! and Bupkis, and is described as being about, "An anxious playwright finds himself tangled in a web of deceit, injury, and intellectual property as he adapts his first Broadway musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Inspired by a true story."
Given the rights issues involved with a movie like this, it's hard to say whether this project will ever get made (a documentary ultimately seems far more likely).
Other Marvel-related projects to have hit the Black List in previous years include an Ironheart movie in 2018 and Excelsior!, a Stan Lee and Jack Kirby biopic in 2020 which we're sure Disney would rather not see the light of day.
"This year, the industry was defined by a debate about the value of writers within it, and I think it's inevitable that this year's Black List means more than it has in the past," Black List founder Franklin Leonard said. "I've been saying that writing is the lifeblood of the industry for almost twenty years now, and I'll continue saying it until the industry actually starts acting like it."
"Now that the strikes are over, I look forward to these and other great scripts getting made so I can watch them as an audience member myself."
Would you watch a movie detailing the making of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark?