Julie Taymor’s The Tempest to Close Venice Film Festival

The Venice International Film Festival announced Monday morning that Julie Taymor’s The Tempest will close the fest, which runs September 1 through 11th. Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is the opener.

The $20-million indie-funded Miramax pick-up is finally coming out in December via Disney’s Touchstone label, which is fine with Taymor. At Cannes she said that the film wasn’t ready in May (Icon screened it in the Cannes market, though not for press) and would play the fall fest circuit. No matter how commercial Taymor’s latest Shakespeare adaptation turns out to be, with Helen Mirren as Prospera, Ben Whishaw as Ariel and Djiman Hounsou as Caliban, costumes (Oscar-winner Sandy Powell), cinematography (Stuart Dryburgh), production design (Mark Friedberg) and score (Elliot Goldenthal) should be factors in the Oscar mix. L.A. rocker Reeve Carney, who plays Peter Parker in Taymor’s Broadway musical adaptation of Spider-Man, stars in The Tempest as young Prince Ferdinand.

My two-part interview with Taymor at Cannes is below.

Taymor is no stranger to the Lido; in 2002 she debuted Frida in the Venice competition.

Although Miramax is for sale, Disney claimed this title early on as one of its own.

Taymor and I spoke poolside at The Majestic:

Taymor Part 1:

Part 2:

Here’s my Taymor profile for Across the Universe..

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