Bill Nicholson Talks About Script for 'Les Miz' Movie

Found this on a message board, thought I'd pass it along. On Bill Nicholson's website he answered a question about his work on the script for the movie version of 'Les Miserables':



Posted by Ali
July 14th 2011
I heard you are writing the script for the upcoming musical adaptation of Les Miserables! I am absurdly excited, as I've loved your writing for a long time - including your plays and films - and Les Miserables is one of my all-time favorite stories. Just was curious how you become attached to the project and what you're looking forward to most about adapting it.

William Nicholson responded:
I am doing the screenplay for the film version of the musical, yes. It will still be the musical its fans, and I, love - but even better, we hope. The film company involved is Working Title, who know me well, and asked me to do the job. What am I looking forward to? Clarifying and enhancing the motivations of the main characters, making the plot work more simply and powerfully, and creating a result that equals or surpasses the impact of the stage show without anyone really noticing that anything has been changed.

http://www.williamnicholson.com/qa/

Promising.

Good word, Capn. A word Marshall was clearly never taught.

I remember reading Mr. Nicholson's reply to a similar inquiry written in by a fan - about a month ago ( June 16, http://www.williamnicholson.com/qa/?offset=13):

>>Posted by Rhys
June 16th 2011
Hi Mr Nicholson, Apparantly you'll be on scripting duties again for a film adaptation of the musical version of Les Miserables. Is this true? And how will you go about adapting it; will you try and keep some of the dialogue or will you do a complete rewrite? I look forward to seeing your efforts (assuming the project goes forward and you are actually on scripting duties!)

William Nicholson responded:

I have been working on the screenplay for Les Miserables, yes. Since the whole idea is to make it close to the musical, with all the songs, it won't of course be a radical rewrite. However, I have been able to develop the story and enhance the characters, in what is already a very powerful piece. Still a long way to go, and many other talents will be at work on the project before it's done<<<

Updated On: 7/17/11 at 01:16 PM

So there will probably be dialogue? Or will it be like making the lyrics mean different things relating to what is going on onscreen like Tommy or Rent.

Sounds like he respects the source material.

This is promising.

I always thought Javert finally saw that Valjean was actually a good person, and he couldn't reconcile that with his belief that all criminals are bad. He doesn't want to admit that Valjean was actually an honorable man, but he can no longer lie to himself about it, either. He even says that he doesn't want to live in a world where he owes Valjean his life.

It's open to interpretation, I'm sure.

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One of the reasons PHANTOM OF THE OPERA was such a hot mess of a movie had to do with the sung-through aspect, it made the whole thing unbearable to watch. Film is just not a medium that lends itself to that type of musical, IMO. Glad to see both Hooper and Nicholson realize this and are making due changes. It could turn out to be quite a special film if they are able to adapt it accordingly while still trusting the fact that it's a musical (unlike say Bill Condon in DREAMGIRLS or Rob Marshall in NINE).

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On a related matter -- it looks like pre-production is proceeding smoothly because a firm filming date seems to be already in place!

Hugh Jackman has told large crowds at the largest movie convention in America in San Diego, Ca., during a Q&A session, that he is filming LES MISERABLES in February ( 2012), after he completes filming WOLVERINE 2 ( which will start shooting from October 2011, in Japan and North America).

http://screenrant.com/hugh-jackman-wolverine-2-villain-pauly-124738/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2017500/Look-Hughs-crooning-now.html?ito=feeds-newsxml


Lots of other info/confirmation on the Les Mis movie from the Baz Bamigboye Daily Mail article link provided by Fan2 elsewhere on this board --

*Confirmation of the casting of Hugh Jackman as Valjean
*Possible choice between Paul Bettany and Russell Crowe as Javert
*Not sung-through, but a combined dialogue/songs/maybe recitatives format
*Filming to start in February 2012.

Things are really moving fast now for this production ( after waiting for close to 20 years since the first filmization announcement by Mackintosh).

Updated On: 7/21/11 at 08:17 PM

So, I'm not gonna get excited because I got excited for Nine and we saw how that turned out. However, I'm going to say that I will be very, very interested to see what happens with all of this,

I'm actually worried about the spoken dialogue. I don't think it will transition well.

And Phantom did insert spoken dialogue, which sounded really jarring. I remember Emmy Rossum speaking "What I once used to dream, I now dread (etc)." It rhymed and everything.

I just wish people would be comfortable putting a full sung-through musical as a movie rather than putting in dialogue that doesn't really fit. IIRC Evita didn't have random spoken dialogue, and I don't remember thinking it was a bad decision.

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