Just like Factory Girl, Across the Universe, the $45 million hippie, trippy love story set to the music of 35 Beatles songs, is going through some rough times. Seems the director Julie Taymor and the studio are battling it out.

Upon completing her version of the movie, Taymor found out Joe Roth (the film executive whose production company is making the film) had created his own version. He even tested his version last week, leading Taymor to consider taking her name off the movie (a radical move that could hurt the release and the studio). While Taymor has won the MacArthur “genius” grant and is responsible for the stage version of “The Lion King,” on Roth's roster are films like “Christmas With the Kranks,” and “Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise” - so we're gonna go out on a limb and say Taymor's version may be the way to go. Roth has final cut however, as he vowed never to allow a director final cut after 2003's Gigli.

The NY Times got this statement from Taymor: “My creative team and I are extremely happy about our cut and the response to it. 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.”

One of the first reviews can be found here, and we're guessing this is of Roth's cut. Pretty positive overall, though we still pretty much only want to see the film to see a colorful Rivington Street again.