Les Mis Movie: Soon?

#1

Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 2/22/07 at 8:27am

In the documentary about the show, Stage By Stage, they said a film was in production! :) Is this true???



P.S. I HOPE SO!

Updated On: 2/22/07 at 08:27 AM

#2

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 2/22/07 at 8:37am

I’ll let someone else who knows more address that, but IMO a Les Miz movie would never work. No mainstream audience is going to sit through sung-through musical. The show would have to be completely restructured, and that would probably ruin it for the musical fans.

#3

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 2/22/07 at 9:15am

Is this old news from about 10 years ago?
I know that in Variety March 1997 (Les Miz 10th Anniversary issue) there was an ad like Watch for the upcoming movie .

p.s. I hope it is new news.

#4

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 2/22/07 at 9:19am

I saw the show in 1990 and my Playbill had an ad saying the same thing, that a Les Mis movie would begin filming soon. The dramatic version with Liam Neeson and Claire Danes was released soon thereafter but not the musical. I doubt it would work - Phantom was gorgeous but very, very boring.

#5

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 2/22/07 at 9:24am

You do realize Stage By Stage is almost twenty years old, right?

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#6

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 2/22/07 at 9:27am

So they were hyping the movie as soon as they opened, huh.

#7

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 2/22/07 at 10:32am

coolphantom919

that documentary came out right when the show originally opened! I guess they are really taking there time making the movie then, must be the most expensive production EVER!

#8

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 2/22/07 at 11:06am

In the documentary about the show, Stage By Stage, they said a film was in production! :) Is this true???

It was at the time...

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"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt

#9

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 2/22/07 at 11:09am

Now this I could see. I really thought they would release a movie before the revival though.

#10

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 2/22/07 at 11:11am

Whatever happened to Bruce Beresford, anyway?

http://tinyurl.com/2ke8j9

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"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt

#11

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 2/22/07 at 11:24am

LES MISERABLES [LIMBO]
Written by Andrew Hartman
Friday, 09 February 2007


In February 2005, producer Cameron Mackintosh announced there was interest to turn the record-breaking musical into a feature film.

"In the last six to nine months there has been renewed interest in the idea of a film adaptation and several big players want to be involved. That doesn't necessarily mean we are going to hand the project over to a big name director. We want someone who has a vision for the show that will put the show's original team, including me, back to work. We don't just want an adaptation. We want a film audiences will find as fresh as the actual show."

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"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle

#12

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 2/22/07 at 11:25am

The twenty year old documentary also probably said that Bob Fosse was at the helm of a film of Chicago with Madonna and Liza in the leads. It's very old, very dated news. Sorry.

#13

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 12:26am

My dream cast:

Director: Peter Jackson

Valjean: Russell Crowe
Javert: Kevin Kline
Fantine: Emily Blunt
Marius: James McAvoy
Cosette: An unknown
Eponine: An unknown
Enjolras: Not sure
Thenardier: Jim Broadbent
Madame T: Julie Walters

#14

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 7:05am

WTF????

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#15

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 10:13am

I like your cast, EponineThenardier

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"I saw Pavarotti play Rodolfo on stage and with his girth I thought he was about to eat the whole table at the Cafe Momus." - Dollypop

#16

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 10:50am

Peter Jackson? EWWW!!!!! King Kong was HORRIBLE. I don't want to see a CGI Barricade.

#17

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 1:28pm

No Gavroche? How about Ed Sanders?

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I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."

#18

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 4:14pm

I think the reason that LES MIZ hasn't been made into a film is that its such a literal theatrical adaptation of the book that has been in turn been adapted into a movie countless times already.

What more are you going to do with it? You can't give it the Baz Luhrman / Julie Taymor treatment.

Pretty much all you have to do to imagine the movie version of the musical is rent any of the films and play the cast recording in the background...

That doesn't sound like a very exciting movie musical to me.

#19

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 4:49pm

Yeah I think Les Mis would have to be shortened anyway before a complete movie would be made.

But I've heard the same thing. They originally planned to release a movie version in 1992 (what Stage by Stage says, as well as brochures, and the book "The Complete Les Miserables"..all say a movie in 1992) probably becuase Andrew Lloyd Webber was doing the Phantom of the Opera movie in the early '90s, but his divorce with Sarah reportedly broke off movie hopes...until 2004 obviously. I think 2 or 3 pro-shots are on YouTube somewhere..well "Wishing You Were SomeHow here again" is. But as for the Les Mis movie, Cameron's unfortunately been saying since 1995 that there's a new interest in the movie, but nothing will come of it. I except Jekyll & Hyde before it! (Haha)

#20

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 5:06pm

Are you talking about the music video for "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again"?

#21

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 6:03pm

"I’ll let someone else who knows more address that, but IMO a Les Miz movie would never work. No mainstream audience is going to sit through sung-through musical. The show would have to be completely restructured, and that would probably ruin it for the musical fans."

I think Sweeney Todd proved that audiences will watch completely sung/nearly all sung musicals.
But I do agree that a film might not be necessary because it's such a literal/literary adaptation. But given the phenomenon it is and that they're making so many musicals (movies) these last few years, I'd say it's about time.

#22

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 6:07pm

Scarlett Johansson or Anne Hathaway might do well as a performer.

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I mean, Denzel Washington? Gun to my head..of course.

#23

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 6:16pm

" I think Sweeney Todd proved that audiences will watch completely sung/nearly all sung musicals."

Well, Sweeney really didn't set the Box Office on fire, did it ?

Though I'd love a Les Mis movie, I am not keeping my hopes up high...

#24

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 6:22pm

Yeah, and Sweeeney Todd just managed to find a cinematic language where bursting into song was acceptable. And that language is Tim Burton.

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#25

re: Les Mis Movie: Soon?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 6:35pm

I think Tim Burton would never do a Les Miz movie.

And I can't really imagine it working under any director...