According to a Variety report last Friday, Sony Corporation's (NYSE: SNE) Columbia Pictures was barred from making any reference to The Beatles in marketing Julie Taymor's film Across the Universe. SonyATV Publishing, the firm that manages the rights to Lennon/McCartney songs allowed Revolution Studios to adapt songs by the group into a story set to the backdrop of the changing atmosphere of the 1960s (the era when the songs were written and performed). The report also indicates that critics' reviews mentioned the band, which was outside the scope of the marketing limitations. Coincidentally, so was the Variety report.

While it is no surprise that mentioning The Beatles was barred from marketing the film, any viewer who sees the movie and asks "what's this about" must surely be from another "universe." The stylized type for the name of the film on advertisement posters is modeled after The Beatles own mid-60s "logo" and the tagline is "all you need is love" after all. Of course, Sony marketing's Valerie Van Galder points out this much to Variety but emphasized that the studio did not need to "remind audiences of the film's connection to one of the most venerable brands in the history of entertainment."

All the same, Variety fails to mention that the surviving members of that brand, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, were "pleased" by the film. Despite the apparent ease that the studio and filmmakers had marketing the film without mentioning The Beatles, one has to wonder (naively perhaps) why SonyATV Publishing would have disallowed the connection when the publishing and distribution company's are both under one corporation. If you wanted to make as many connections as possible with The Beatles, the production company even shares its name with a song. In the end, it hardly matters that marketing the film was barred in this way -- it is not that hard a connection to hide.

The film was expanded from a "limited engagement" this weekend, managing to pull in $2.05 million.

As a fan of The Beatles, I write about them or related topics frequently (although never as much as I think about the group). Therefore, it should be no surprise that I am thrilled about tomorrow's release of the new film based around The Beatles songs: Julie Taymor's musical Across the Universe. If you haven't heard about it, I'm surprised. The film has been heavily promoted and has received the approval of both living Beatles: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. And while the new movie is going to be an event when it is released tomorrow, it also caps off a year that seems rooted in The Beatles.

Since the opening of the Cirque du Soleil show Love in 2006, the band has been much more mainstream. Unfortunately, that is not always success (Paul McCartney's divorce), but I don't want to talk about that aspect. With the show came a corresponding soundtrack album and the beginning of serious rumors that The Beatles would be available digitally. Though the rumors started earlier this year, nothing has happened and signs point to 2008 for a digital Beatles release. But 2007 has still been very good for The Beatles and related products. June saw the release of three albums, new and reissues, which charted high in the Billboard 200 while selling very well. The summer also saw the addition of post-Beatles solo catalogs online for McCartney, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon. Rumors abounded that the catalogs are paving the way for digital release of The Beatles in the future.

But as successful as those items have been, and don't let me minimize that, the marketing for Across the Universe has been everywhere. While critics may "do their thing" in analyzing the film, as fans we can enjoy the seeming uniqueness of the project and the scope in which it occupies. Because the film is not released yet, and I haven't seen it, I won't offer any kind of assessment, but the soundtrack is available.