Decker

Just read about this film being made this morning (I've been waiting for a Les Miz film since the rumors first arose about a Travolta/ Glenn Close version in the late 80s). Don't know if Tom Hooper has a knack for musicals, but certainly his last film, The King's Speech, was very well received and won him an Oscar (undeserved at it may have been ).
I LOVE this cast he's assembled:


Amanda Seyfried ... Cosette

Eddie Redmayne ... Marius

Hugh Jackman ... Jean Valjean

Anne Hathaway ... Fantine

Russell Crowe ... Inspector Javert

Helena Bonham Carter ... Madame Thénardier

Sacha Baron Cohen ... Monsieur Thénardier

Aaron Tveit ... Enjolras

George Blagden ... Grantaire

Just today they announced that they've cast British stage actress Samantha Barks in the pivotal role of Eponine over Taylor Swift, Scarlet Johansson and Lea Michele. Clearly they're casting on the basis of talent over star appeal, at least in that role. Curious to see if Russel Crowe can sing. Other than that, all the headlines are musical theater vets by now. Shooting starts in March.
Can't wait to see this!

Solid Snake

yeah, i'm excited to see Hugh Jackman do his thing w/ the sing and dance.

davidh777

We've been discussing it in the Broadway movies thread (Stage plays (ref. Wicked)), but great idea to create its own thread.

Not a lot of dancing in this one, though.

clckworang

I just glanced at the thread title real quick and read it as Dir: Tobe Hooper. I had to do a quick double-take. Now that would be a weird adaptation of Les Miserables!

Decker

I find it funny that Helena Bonham Carter will have done exactly two movie musicals, and both will require her to sing a song about filling meat pies with questionable ingredients.

davidh777

And she can probably reuse the costume

Giles

shooting in March and out by December - wow that sounds like a rush job.

Groucho

I made the same mistake.

I know Crowe has a band, but can he really pull off Javert? That's not an easy role to sing.

Giles

yes 'Stars' is a rather difficult song to pull off.

Decker

I don't necessarily think so. It's a pretty quick turn-around, but for a non-effects-heavy film, it's do-able. For example Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close started shooting in March and released for the holiday season. I remember Munich was shot in the Summer before its holiday release. I think Clint Eastwood shoots only a few months prior to his films' release dates, but that's probably a bad example since I've heard he never wants to shoot a scene twice.

Pizza the Hutt

Glad they picked a relative unknown. Cute too, she looks like porn star Allie Haze.

Decker

That had to be tough to pass on Taylor Swift, as she would have probably added millions to the box office total. She would have been the front-runner for the Sophia Coppola award for amateur actress most likely to ruin an epic motion picture with minimal screen time. Wouldn't have minded Lea Michele though. I hate Glee, but kinda have a little thing for her.
That British gal is cute, though. Thanks for the pic.

Sondheim

My family has been obsessed with this musical since it came out - it was one of our perennial road trip CDs - and I've been hearing rumors of a film adaptation for a long, long time. If/when this actually happens - and at this point it looks like it is - I'll be enormously impressed.

Groucho

And even she turned out to be a decent actress, she's not a very strong singer either.

Decker

I saw this story come across IMDB today about Les Miz :

I think even Alanis Morissette had a better concept of what the word "Ironic" means.

davidh777

Yeah, that's not even the usual misuse of it as "coincidental."

From the other thread:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EYWIVmTBECE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Drexl

I don't think there's actually any dancing in this though.

Solid Snake

I knew that somehow..but...damnit...I'd love to see man sing and dance in film.

Crocker Jarmen

I'm skeptical about someone knowing how to put together a good musical feature film. I thought both Sweeney Todd and Phantom films were abysmal, having non of the grace and charm of the stage productions.

Xander

I agree. You can also throw RENT in there as far as I'm concerned. Older musicals like Hair and West Side Story did well adapting to the movie screen, but I can't think of any recent examples that were that great...

Giles

Hairspray.

in terms of 'Hair' - it's got great dancing and streamlining the story to it's basic premise, but a lot of the songs were jettisoned for the movie version.

Decker

For what I considered an unfilmable musical, I thought Chicago was pretty good, maybe borderline great. I'm quite partial to Evita (which, amazingly, still has not been released in anamoprhic widescreen, let alone HD), mostly because Antonio Banderas totally nails Che.

The biggest mistake that they made in "Phantom" -- one which will clearly not be repeated with Les Miz, was the casting of unknowns (or barely-knowns) in ALL the major roles. When you film a 20 year musical, you have to kind of assume that most of your core audience has seen the production. Anyone in London, New York, Toronto or Vegas could see unknowns in Phantom any night of the week, so it was a huge mistake not to bring some real stars on board for their production and give the filmgoing world a compelling reason to see it again. When you're shooting a major studio motion picture and Minnie Driver is your most recognizable cast member, you've got problems.

FWIW, I liked Sweeney Todd and thought it looked amazing.

Giles

it also didn't help that Gerard's singing of the Phantom sounded like he was going to burst a vein in his neck.

Draven

I thought Sweeney Todd was great. I'd also add the following as great musical adaptations:

Little Shop of Horrors
Hairspray
Reefer Madness
Chicago
Evita

And I'm sure there are more I'm not thinking of at the moment. I have high hopes for this, and I'm officially tired of Les Mis on stage. I'd seen it several times growing up and just saw it again a few months ago. Boooring. They've made some DUMB changes to the stage version, so I hope the movie can bring back some of the excitement that is missing from the tour.

Drexl

I think the biggest mistake with Phantom was Joel Schumacher. Although, he was chosen by Webber.