Julie Taymor, director of Across the Universe, must have liked what she heard from leads Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood so much that she’d like to cast them again to sing Bono and Edge’s songbook for the still-in-development Spiderman Broadway musical. (Presumably, Bono must have liked what he heard too.)

Maybe you caught that in The Daily Mail last November, when Taymor said she’d have to “go through a web” to get Sturgess and Wood for the musical. Actually, she at least got them to read for the parts last July during casting calls, as many places have already reported.

Just last month Taymor told Marc Malkin, of Planet Gossip for E! Online: “We had a workshop reading with Jim as Peter and Evan as Mary Jane. I would love for them to do it. But I don’t know. It’s all about timing. Jim is new to the movie thing, and he has, like, four movies coming out.”

Would Sturgess and Wood let a little thing like “timing” get in the way?
(Most speculations — okay, rumors — are saying the musical won’t open until late 2008 at the earliest. Maybe during the holiday season?)

Would you like to hear them singing Bono and Edge? And if they can’t work it out, then who should be choices #2?

A reader who saw my U2 3D fan-demonium story asked if my cousin Kim — a music fan but not necessarily of U2 — was converted after she saw the movie. Five minutes later, I got an answer in the form of an e-mail from Kim:

When they go on tour next, I want to go!!! I really, really enjoyed the music!!! I was on the web site the next day checking out all of the albums/cd’s…. I think I am going to buy that one from 87 you told me about … I told all of my co-workers about it and a group of one of them is going to see it Saturday!! My boss might too. I want to again, because it was just so much to take in, I am ready to see it again!!! You may have converted me to a U2 fan!!!

I just couldn’t stop laughing when I read that. It always feels good to bring someone into the fold. Have you ever converted someone to U2 fandom? What was it that finally grabbed a hold of their musical soul: a CD, a movie, a concert?

Sorry to cut this short, but I have to go feed my new convert’s thirst for U2.

This U2oon can be yours! This one of a kind, hand drawn sloppy pencil and ink U2oon — devoid of all computer trickery — can be won by a lucky folk attending the Seattle U2 3D @U2 shindig, Saturday, January 26th. I hope to see you there!

We’ve been having a discussion at Casa McGee for a couple weeks now about whether or not my wife (a marginal U2 fan) and son (a big fan) should even bother to see U2 3D when it gets to our little hamlet in mid-February. This article answered our question:

No 3D in ‘U2 3D’ without binocular vision

Yep. Neither my wife nor my son can see in 3D. Crazy, isn’t it? And this writer confirms that nothing’s changed with the new 3D technology.

No worries. My son will still want to go when the movie gets here. And I’ll still take him.

@U2 Reader Heather Romney was one of the lucky 100 people allowed in for the screening and Q&A with the band at Sundance last night. She was kind enough to share some of her photos with us and with fellow readers. U2’s 3D glasses look way cooler than the ones we have here!

Heather also shared some thoughts about the experience:
“One question that was asked was whether or not the band had any new material, or whether they would be coming out with an album soon. They responded that they were working on it, and hoped to release it in 2008. But no solid new information, unfortunately. Before the film they welcomed everyone and Bono joked that Edge indeed does not appear as big on screen as he does in real life. The Q & A was fairly short, unfortunately. The whole band looked really tired and pretty jet lagged the entire time, so Bono did most of the talking until Adam spoke up and mentioned that they’d have to go. Someone else asked whether or not there would be any more 3D concert movies that U23D in the future with a deeper narrative, such as “Yellow Submarine”, etc. and Bono stepped up and jokingly told him to “Fuck off, my narratives are better than Yellow Submarine.” During the movie, however, people were singing, holding up their cell phones, the whole thing. It really was like being there. I think that any non-U2 fan would be impressed by the movie too.”

Thanks, Heather!

I was just looking at my Last.fm user profile and noticed that I’ve listened to exactly 3,000 U2 songs since I joined Last.fm on March 10, 2006:

Last.fm says I’ve listened to 33,763 songs in that time, so my U2 intake is only 9% of the total. That seems low to me! Not that any of this really matters, of course.

Anyone else on Last.fm? What percent of your overall listening is U2?