By Mark Kennedy
Associated Press
NEW YORK — A settlement has been reached between the producers of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” and its fired director, Julie Taymor, ending a bitter legal fight over what has become Broadway’s most expensive show.
“All claims between all of the parties in the litigation have been resolved,” both sides said in a statement Wednesday. No details about the settlement or how it was reached were immediately revealed.
Taymor, who was the original “Spider-Man” director and co-book writer, was fired after years of delays, accidents and critical backlash to a show whose $75 million price tag ballooned to make it the most expensive in Broadway history.
The show, which features music by U2’s Bono and The Edge, opened in November 2010 but spent months in previews and then retooling before officially opening a few days after the Tony Awards in June 2011. It has become a financial hit at the box office.
In November 2011, Taymor slapped the producers — led by Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris — as well as Glen Berger, her former co-book writer, with a federal copyright infringement lawsuit, alleging they violated her creative rights and hadn’t compensated her for the work she put into the show. The producers’ filed a counterclaim asserting the copyright claims were baseless.
“We’re happy to put all this behind us,” said a statement by Cohl and Harris. For her part, Taymor was quoted in the release as saying: “I’m pleased to have reached an agreement and hope for the continued success of ‘Spider-Man,’ both on Broadway and beyond.”
Messages left for lawyers on both side were not immediately returned.
Taymor’s lawsuit sought half of all profits derived from the sale, license, transfer or lease of any rights in the original “Spider-Man” book along with a permanent ban of the use of her name or likeness in connection with a documentary film that was made of the birth of the musical without her written consent.
