DIRECTOR Julie Taymor and producer Joe Roth are in open conflict over the final cut of her new movie, Across the Universe, a stylised $45 million musical that takes its title from one of the 35 Beatles songs on the soundtrack.
When Taymor turned in a 140-minute version, Roth persuaded her to cut 12 minutes. Then she learned that Roth had re-edited the film, removing another half-hour, and that this version had a test screening in Arizona last week.
"My creative team and I are extremely happy about our cut and the response to it," Taymor said in a statement. "Sometimes at this stage of the Hollywood process differences of opinion arise, but in order to protect the film, I am not getting into details at this time."
The film features Evan Rachel Wood (above) as Lucy, a US teen, who falls in love with Jude, a young Englishman, during turbulent events in the 1960s. It blends live action with animation and puppetry, and the singers include Bono on I Am the Walrus and Joe Cocker on Come Together.
A Tony winner for The Lion King, Taymor directed Titus and Frida, while Roth, a former Disney studio chief, has directed six films, including Revenge of the Nerds II, Freedomland and Christmas With the Kranks. Roth said the re-editing process was "not anything out of the ordinary" and that "no one is uncomfortable in this process, other than Julie".
He added: "If you work off her hysteria, that will do the film an injustice. Nobody wants to do that. She's worked long and hard, and made a wonderful movie."
Cruise to star in Hitler flick
Director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, who collaborated on The Usual Suspects, are reuniting for another multi-character ensemble piece, this time set in wartime and dealing with a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Tom Cruise will star in the as-yet-untitled film.
Singer is also committed to directing the pilot show for the US version of the TV series Footballers' Wives, to be shot during the summer, and at a later date, the Superman Returns sequel and The Mayor of Castro Street, dealing with murdered gay San Francisco councillor Harvey Milk.
Pitt the investigator
Brad Pitt will play an investigative journalist seeking the truth behind the murder of a politician's lover in State of Play, the US movie based on the BBC mini-series that starred John Simm as the reporter.
The new version, which transposes the plot from London to Washington DC, will be directed by Kevin Macdonald, who made The Last King of Scotland and the recently completed documentary, My Enemy's Enemy, which explores how the CIA protected Klaus Barbie and other Nazi war criminals in Latin America.
Horror movie in the dock
London-based Tartan Video has ceased supplying DVD retailers with The Last Horror Movie, as a result of a murder trial in Reading where it was claimed that the teenage defendant watched the movie repeatedly over four days before allegedly committing two murders.
Released in 2003, the movie deals with an amateur filmmaker turned serial killer who finds an unwitting audience when he copies his snuff movies onto rental tapes at his local video store.
Rhys Meyers plays Henry VIII
US cable channel Showtime is spending over $8 million on marketing the 10-part series, The Tudors, which was shot in Ireland last year and features Jonathan Rhys Meyers (left) as the young Henry VIII. Showtime begins transmitting the series in the US from April 1st.
According to an early report on the opening episode, "the king mourns the death of his uncle, declares war on France and leaps into bed with two squealing damsels - all in the first 15 minutes."
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