New and valuable information I took from this Variety article about the trials and tribulations of liscensing many, many Beatles songs for the upcoming Across The Universe: “The timelessness of the Fab Four has defied the laws of celebrity physics, finding favor with several generations of fans — not just those who came of age in the ’60s.” Also, Beatles songs are very, very expensive to liscense ($250,000) thanks to hurdles like crazy ol’ Michael Jackson, but if you try a little “smart, lateral thinking,” as the filmmakers did, then “As John Lennon advised us in “All You Need Is Love”: ‘It’s easy.’” Also, Variety writer Martin Lewis has no shame.
Sony Exploits Its Beatles Catalog [Variety]
Julie Taymor is making it very very hard for me to defend her.
@JudgeFudge: Gonna have to disagree about #7… I actually enjoyed Velvet Goldmine, The Cat’s Meow, and for some reason The Avengers (as bad as it is) will always have a place in my heart.
Not as easy as they make it sound. Nothing’s stopping you from recording a Beatles cover and paying the statutory mechanical rate, but you have to obtain synchronization licenses if you’re using a composition in a movie, TV show, DVD, etc. My experience is that Sony turns down most such requests flat - unless of course you have $ and connections, which it appears the producers did in this case.
That’s just for the Lennon/McC compositions; you have to go through a whole other publisher if you want to use one of George’s songs, and they’re every bit as notoriously difficult as Apple or Jacko. I’m guessing we won’t be hearing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” or “Something” on the soundtrack.
Ten reasons not to see this movie:
1. The preview looks like the daydream of a 12-year old girl who doodles pictures of the beatles on her peachey folder.
2. Bono’s in it.
3. Bono plays Dr. Robert.
4. Dr. Robert is a charachter in the movie in the first place.
5. Bono reveals the psychadelic implications of “I am the Walrus”.
6. Cirque De Soleil already tainted the Beatles legacy earlier this year.
7. Movies with Eddie Izzard are strangely never very good.
8. Aged Joe Cocker in widescreen.
9. ‘Give My Regards To Broadstreet’
10. Oroginal Cast Recording.