Julie Taymor Working on TRANSPOSED HEADS Movie Musical; Takes Credit for First Live Singing on ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

Those who have kept up with the press surrounding one of the holiday season's biggest movies, Les Miserables, know how much emphasis was put on the fact that it was the first time that a movie musical had used live singing. In a recent interview with Charlie Rose, however, Julie Taymor claims that the cast of Across the Universe did the very same thing back in 2007.

Additionally, she announced that she is currently working on a movie musical based on Thomas Mann's The Transposed Heads novel. The film will take place in both India and New York City. Click here to listen to the full interview, which also includes talk about Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, The Lion King, and more.

Taymor is a director of theater, opera and film. She was the first woman to win the Tony Award for directing a musical for "The Lion King," in addition to a Tony Award for Original Costume Design. She has also received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song. Among Taymor's achievements in opera is the acclaimed "The Magic Flute" at the Met. Her film "Frida" garnered six Oscar nominations and two Academy Awards, including one for Salma Hayek in the title role. Taymor has also been praised for her iconoclastic film adaptations of "Titus Andronicus" (starring Anthony Hopkins, Alan Cumming, and Jessica Lange) and "The Tempest" (with Helen Mirren as Prospera).