If you thought that the idea of a musical about the 60s set only to Beatles tunes had the makings of an epic disaster, you may have your intuition proved right. Julie Taymor is considering taking her name off Across the Universe, the aforementioned Beatles musical, because Revolution Studios president Joe Roth has re-edited the film and teste it without her knowledge.
Now, Roth isn’t just a studio head, he’s also a director. In fact, he has recently directed films like Freedomland and Christmas With the Kranks… oh shit, this movie is doomed. But if Roth’s cut gets out there and stinks (as it must. The guy directed Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise), Taymor’s cut will become one of those lost classics that we’ll always hear about and only get to see for on the double dip DVD (like Brian Helgeland’s director’s cut of Payback, which arrived in my mailbox today). Of course the truth could be that Taymor’s version is just as bad as the trailer hinted that it might be (in fairness, the trailer hinted that it could also be brilliant in a wacky way – you can’t trust trailers), and this whole thing could be a wash either way.
Editing has already delayed the film by almost a year, so there’s no telling what this potential battle of the wills will do for the release date.