Though last week we thought that this guy had the role of Peter Parker pretty much locked up, the producers of Julie Taymor’s Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark have announced more open casting calls in five major cities next week for the lead role, as well as for Mary Jane, the female villain (a new, made-up one named Swiss Miss, according to Michael Riedel), plus all three understudies. Additionally, this would seem to torpedo reports that Evan Rachel Wood had been cast as Mary Jane. Then again, we suppose this could also be like that time they held a huge open casting call to find Notorious B.I.G. — after they’d purportedly already hired a guy — just to score some easy publicity, in which case we’d feel awful for getting Josh Bednarsky’s hopes up again.
Who Is the Villain of the ‘Spider-Man’ Musical? [ArtsBeat/NYT]
Earlier: Aspiring Actor Josh Bednarsky Is All Wrong to Play Spider-Man