Director Julie Taymor Booted From Spider-Man Musical

After days of rumors, the producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark made the official announcement last night: Director Julie Taymor is out. The problem-plagued musical has also been delayed yet again, this time until “early summer 2011,” according to the show’s blog. Taymor has been replaced with Philip William McKinley, who directed The Boy From Oz, and the script will be revised by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who has written for the Spider-Man comic books.

Despite the official party line (Taymor’s “previous commitments” make her unable to stay with the show now that it’s been delayed for the sixth time), friends and colleagues tell the New York Times she was actually pushed out after all the negative reviews came out last month, and because she refused to make changes to the show. Another source tells the New York Daily News that Bono himself, who wrote the score along with U2 bandmate The Edge, wanted Taymor out, presumably because she hired a non-U2 musical consultant to help with the score. (More Spider-Man stories.)