Julie Taymor's "The Tempest" Will Close Venice Film Festival in September

By Thomas Peter
26 Jul 2010

Tony Award-winning director Julie Taymor, whose long-awaited musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark begins rehearsals in August, will see her upcoming film of William Shakespeare's The Tempest close the Venice Film Festival, according to deadline.com.

The festival will run Sept. 1-11 at Venice Lido. Black Swan, a drama starring Natalie Portman, will open the festival.

Taymor's film of The Tempest, one of Shakespeare's later plays depicting a deposed duke with magical powers who lives with his daughter on an isolated island with assorted fantastical creatures, casts Academy Award winner Helen Mirren in a gender-bending performance as the Duke Prospero (Prospera). Academy Award winner Chris Cooper (Antonio), Academy Award nominees Djimon Hounsou (Caliban) and David Strathairn (Alonso), Tony Award winner Alan Cumming (Sebastian), Tony nominee Alfred Molina (Stephano), Ben Whishaw (Ariel), Russell Brand (Trinculo), Felicity Jones (Miranda) and future Spider-Man star Reeve Carney (Ferdinand) also star.

The film is scheduled to be released in December by Touchstone Pictures.