21 March 2007
poor little miss frida
well it looks like one of my most looked forward to movies this year is going all to hell. if you didn't see the trailer i posted the other day for julie taymor's new project then you should, because it looks awesome. unfortunately, according to this post on the ew blog, the studio has pretty much cut it to hell in order to make money. i think i am only watching foreign films from now on. here is the AWFUL article:
Beatle battle: We can work it out -- maybe
Mar 20, 2007, 09:01 PM | by Gary Susman
A studio takes a film away from its director, recuts it, and puts out the revised version over the director's objections. It's a story as old as Hollywood, though it's rare that the studio recuts a film behind the director's back. But that's what seems to have happened with Across the Universe, Julie Taymor's Beatles-scored musical starring Evan Rachel Wood (pictured). According to the New York Times, Revolution Studios chief Joe Roth lopped half an hour off of Taymor's 128-minute cut and test-marketed his version, which he believes is more commercial; as a result, Taymor is considering going all Alan Smithee and taking her name off the project.
Now, Roth has the contractual right to recut the film, and he's a director himself, though his movies (Christmas With the Kranks, America's Sweethearts) aren't exactly as acclaimed as Taymor's works (Frida, Broadway's The Lion King). Plus, a shorter cut can play more showings per day. Still, who would you trust more to do right by the movie musical: the woman whose radical reimagining of a Disney movie has been running on Broadway for a decade and spawned nine road-company productions, or the Revolution Studios exec who greenlit xXx: State of the Union and Gigli?
Permalink | Comments (10) ¶ 3/21/2007 09:46:00 AM
Beatle battle: We can work it out -- maybe
Mar 20, 2007, 09:01 PM | by Gary Susman
A studio takes a film away from its director, recuts it, and puts out the revised version over the director's objections. It's a story as old as Hollywood, though it's rare that the studio recuts a film behind the director's back. But that's what seems to have happened with Across the Universe, Julie Taymor's Beatles-scored musical starring Evan Rachel Wood (pictured). According to the New York Times, Revolution Studios chief Joe Roth lopped half an hour off of Taymor's 128-minute cut and test-marketed his version, which he believes is more commercial; as a result, Taymor is considering going all Alan Smithee and taking her name off the project.
Now, Roth has the contractual right to recut the film, and he's a director himself, though his movies (Christmas With the Kranks, America's Sweethearts) aren't exactly as acclaimed as Taymor's works (Frida, Broadway's The Lion King). Plus, a shorter cut can play more showings per day. Still, who would you trust more to do right by the movie musical: the woman whose radical reimagining of a Disney movie has been running on Broadway for a decade and spawned nine road-company productions, or the Revolution Studios exec who greenlit xXx: State of the Union and Gigli?
Permalink | Comments (10) ¶ 3/21/2007 09:46:00 AM
