Les Misérables

Yeah, I bet it'll be around Thanksgiving. Seems like the Phantom soundtrack came out only a few weeks before that movie's release (late Nov./early Dec.).

Les Mis moved to Christmas day: CLICK

Good move, but it just means I'll have to wait a couple weeks longer. I'll have to see it on the 26th instead of opening night now. Grr.

Hmmm, I wonder if they need a little extra wiggle-room for post-production. Nevertheless, the studio seems quite confident in this one--Christmastime is a big draw at the box office, so releasing it then indicates that they expect this to be big.

~LCD

I think it was more so they didn't go up against The Hobbit on opening weekend. Going against Django Unchained, which I'm also looking forward to, won't be as much an issue because you'll have an older and more female audience for Les Mis that won't be threatened by the young- and male-heavy Django audience. There's more potential crossover for The Hobbit (lit nerds and more females).

A gorgeous First Look feature for the new Les Miserables film has gone up on YouTube.



This film is going to make me cry so much.

Why, oh why couldn't Phantom have been made with this sort of love for the material?

~Madame~

OMG! I'm gonna have to see this 1,000 times. The first snippets of Hugh, Eddie, Amanda, Samantha singing. Still waiting on Sascha and Russell....

Also, they're already selling tickets?

Christmas is such a long time away....

So much to love! Jackman's "Soliloquy" sounds very raw and naked like Hathaway's IDAD; it's going to be heartripping. Barks and Redmayne sound fantastic--Seyfried is kind of vibrato-heavy, but I think that will play well with the character's sweetness. Visually it's almost perfect--Cosette's room is wonderful, it looks exactly like a place created for a girl who's very loved but has a father who wants her to stay a child, so she won't go away and leave him. And I think they're right--they really needed to record this epic, through-sung musical live on set, in order to give it the emotional honesty and urgency it needs to play well on film. This is well on it's way to making me fall in love with Les Mis all over again.

~LCD

Simply beautiful new movie poster for Les Miserables.



Can we say, fidelity to the source?

I love it.

~Madame~

There is not enough squee in the world to describe my reaction on seeing that.

~LCD

Madame Giry wrote:
Can we say, fidelity to the source?

I love it.

~Madame~

Yes!!! Even with the very limited amount of footage and photos we've seen so far, I keep gasping and saying, "Ah, that is from the book!"

I may or may not have been happily raving about just that last night.

With everything that is going on with Les Miz I've informed my family that I will not be around at all for Christmas and also called off of work. I plan to be there for the midnight showing and watch the movie 3 times back to back (to back!)! Merry x-mas to us Mizzies!!

This will definitely surpass my love of the 1998 version! (yes, sorry, I do love the '98 movie!)

LesMizPhan wrote:With everything that is going on with Les Miz I've informed my family that I will not be around at all for Christmas and also called off of work. I plan to be there for the midnight showing and watch the movie 3 times back to back (to back!)! Merry x-mas to us Mizzies!!

Hahaha!

Family does take precedence for me, especially at Christmas. However, expect me to dump the kids on my husband as soon on or after the 26th as I can manage it.

~LCD

Your husband won't go see the movie? I'm planning to see the movie sometime the weekend after Christmas with my parents, grandparents, brother, and maybe others.

I will most likely be at the Midnight showing Christmas Eve/Day our theater is really good about doing midnight showings for a lot of movies. It may beat my Phantom film score...(don't judge!) I saw the Phantom film in theaters 12 times (this was before I had seen the stage show!) What's funny..is now after seeing the stage show 3 times, I cant even get through the movie past the Overture...

SenorSwanky wrote:Your husband won't go see the movie? I'm planning to see the movie sometime the weekend after Christmas with my parents, grandparents, brother, and maybe others.

He's more prog rock than Broadway, I'm afraid (hey, nobody's perfect). I'll probably see if I can arrange something with my mom, though--I know she'd love to see it.

~LCD

Totally seeing this on Christmas Day. I'm just going to go to the relatives early and peace out when everything is done.

As much as I love Les Mis, I love Christmas traditions and spending time with family on the 24th and 25th more. I can wait a few days, even though it'll be tough to avoid reviews and squeeing from others.

My local theatre doesn't have midnight showings or I'd definitely be there for it.

Christmas Day is almost always very low-key here because I don't have much in the way of family (not locally anyway) and my partner's family comes up either a few days before or a few days after. In the even they are here on Christmas, they'd probably go with us...his father likes Les Miz a lot.

So, unless there's a horrible blizzard, I *will* be at the first screening of the day.

Oh, heck...I'd brave the blizzard for it.

More promotional/interview footage, this time from the Australia edition of Today: Click-click

Highlights include snippets of "Who am I" and "Red and Black," and Hathaway letting loose a credible high note in the finale. (Seriously, Schumacher, you chose Emmy Rossssum over that?)

~LCD

Such teases. I've read in lots of articles that Hathaway had a scheduling conflict for Phantom. Whether that's true or just an excuse after turning it down, who knows? She has said she's glad now she didn't end up doing it because she probably then wouldn't have gotten Fantine.

I seem to recall hearing that Hathaway was interested, but Schumacher and Lloyd Webber decided that she was (at 21!) too old for the part. (Because apparently anybody older than 16 is totally too sophisticated to believe in angels, or some such nonsense.) And at any rate, if Sierra Boggess can do both roles...

I know Jackman was unavailable for PotO because he was busy with Boy From Oz at the time. (Think of that: somewhere in the multiverse there is a world where Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway starred in the Phantom movie. I don't care if humans are the slaves of giant intelligent marmosets and there's no chocolate, I envy that world.)

~LCD

Whatever their reasons, I'm glad neither of them was able to do those roles or chose not to.

LadyCDaae wrote:And at any rate, if Sierra Boggess can do both roles...

Of course. It works that way in the theater routinely. But movies are different. Big-time actors are afraid of being typecast, so you rarely see people these days doing multiple musical movies or superhero movies or spy movies or whatever genre.

New poster featuring Jackman as Valjean--first in a series, I'm guessing:



Not really worth the buildup on the official site, but still...The eyes. GUH.

~LCD

Second in the series after the Young Cosette one. Also, speaking of taglines, when this comes out on DVD next year, will the voiceover say "The story of Jean Valjean. Bring him home on DVD and BluRay"?

Good point. Anyway, there's also apparently a Cosette and Marius poster out there that, despite looking like a Twilight ripoff, is quite nice.

ETA: And now one of Javert, too. The tagline is pretty much what I expected for him.

~LCD

Article on the production design from Entertainment Weekly, including first look at the Thenardiers (about what you'd expect, but in a good way).

And if you're really a spoiler junkie, you can find the complete shooting script online (apparently released for awards consideration purposes). I only read through the opening sequence, which sounds wonderful (and contains lots of book references--these folks are definitely showing their work).

~LCD

If I get any more excited for this movie, I think my brain will experience some form of spontaneously combustion well before Christmas.

I've been reading bits of the script all morning; just skipping around a few scenes. And I'm so freaking impressed by how many book details they've woven in.

There are one or two lyric changes I'm not thrilled about, but they're minor. One is near the end and, well, I just liked the emotional sucker punch the original lines delivered. But that's just a tiny personal quibble and I probably won't even think about the difference when I actually see it on the screen.

Really enjoyed the script. The script was just too amazing and it's made with ultimate love and respect. Unlike a certain film that wasn't.