Les Miserables (directed by Tom Hooper)

[jingdalagan]

Tom Hooper to direct film version of Les Misérables musical
Ben East

Jul 27, 2011

Winning the Oscar for best director must work wonders for the confidence. Before Tom Hooper had even placed his golden statue on the mantlepiece, he was being linked with projects such as Iron Man 3, an adaptation of Macbeth and a long-awaited film version of Deborah Moggach’s bestselling book Tulip Fever. But the man who made The King’s Speech refused to take the easy option of a blockbuster or costume drama. Instead, he will next grapple with the musical – perhaps the trickiest of cinematic genres – when he begins filming Les Misérables next year. And unsurprisingly, because it’s Hooper, the cast is getting starrier by the week.

Topic Film stars Directors

Hugh Jackman has already been given the nod to play Valjean, the protagonist of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel set in post-Napoleonic France. It makes a lot of sense. The rugged Jackman is the perfect choice to animate the parole-breaking former convict trying to make a new life for himself, but unable to escape the attentions of Inspector Javert. As for Javert, last week Russell Crowe was linked with the role – though such speculation seems to stem from one throwaway comment in the Daily Mail and the fact that both men are Australian. Paul Bettany is a surer bet, having already auditioned for the part.

Still, Bettany’s musical experience is limited to busking on the streets of London. All of which makes Crowe’s potential involvement slightly more credible, thanks to his well-publicised involvement in a rock ’n’ roll band and his time as Dr Scott in the stage musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Jackman, meanwhile, actually started out as an actor in Australian musicals and is considering a series of concerts in London and New York. But it’s a relief that all three at least know their way around a tune. So often, the narrative of a film musical is overshadowed by whether a Hollywood actor can actually sing or not. Pierce Brosnan was so bad in Mamma Mia!, for example, that some people wondered whether it was an elaborate, postmodern joke.

Nevertheless, Mamma Mia! was a hugely successful film. Although it’s debatable whether it is actually a film at all, or just a whole host of Abba songs shoehorned into some kind of plot about a woman working out who her father could be. And that’s the problem with musicals in the cinema. The moment the characters stop talking and burst into song, any dramatic realism is immediately lost.

But Mamma Mia! confirmed that the best way to make a musical work on the big screen is to embrace the inherent ridiculousness of the form and be unashamedly joyful. It’s why the brilliantly playful Grease is so good and the grandiose Evita so toe-curlingly awful. There’s never the sense that Madonna is doing anything other than frantically emoting via the bombastic songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

Only Chicago, in recent times, stands up as a musical that made the perilous journey from stage to screen intact. Again, it worked because it was so enjoyable – Catherine Zeta Jones was wonderful as the vampy vaudeville queen and the whole piece is a sassily entertaining comment on showbiz. Although whether it really deserved six Oscars in 2003 (including, incredibly, beating the likes of The Pianist and The Lord of the Rings to Best Picture) is something of a moot point.

Since Chicago, Tim Burton has ramped up the cartoon horror in Sweeney Todd to pretty impressive effect, but Phantom of the Opera bombed – although whoever thought that Joel “Batman & Robin” Schumacher would be the right director for Lloyd Webber’s musical deserves, well, 24-hour exposure to All I Ask of You. Interestingly, Jackman was the first choice to play the Phantom, but his schedule didn’t allow him to take the lead role. So, instead, they gave it to Gerard Butler... who, of course, had never sung before. Great choice.

So it’ll be fascinating to see how Hooper approaches Les Misérables. Previous – non-musical – versions have adapted the book in crushingly boring fashion (remember the 1998 film starring Liam Neeson and Uma Thurman? Thought not).

To tackle the awkwardness of combining spoken word and song (which the stage musical does by being almost entirely sung), the *Oscar-nominated writer of Gladiator and Shadowlands, Boll Nicholson, has been hired to bash the script into shape.

Cameron Mackintosh – the impresario behind the long-running stage musical – is on board as a producer, and the film will boast the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg’s original score. Let’s hope Hooper doesn’t take the stage production too literally, though. After all, Valjean’s solo in the prologue is called, you’ve guessed it, What Have I Done?.

[jingdalagan]

The Role Of Eponine In Tom Hooper's Les Miserables Goes To Newcomer Samantha Barks
published: 2012-02-01 01:23:16 Author: Eric Eisenberg



Back in December one of the hottest casting races was launched. It was reported that King's Speech director Tom Hooper was on the lookout to find the proper actress to play Eponine in his adaptation of Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil's Les Miserables musical. Initial reports said that Taylor Swift, Lea Michele, Scarlett Johansson and Evan Rachel Wood were all up for the part, and a few weeks after that it looked as though Swift had become the frontrunner in the race. But now, out of nowhere, a newcomer has swept in and taken the role.

Producer Cameron Mackintosh announced today that Samantha Barks has landed the coveted role of Eponine in Tom Hooper's film, according to Deadline. She joins a stacked cast that includes Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, and Aaron Tveit. Barks is a newcomer to the movie world - though she has done some television acting - but is not new to the spotlight. In 2008 she starred on the UK reality show "I'd Do Anything," a show that had unknown musical performers compete for a role in a West End revival of Lionel Bart's Oliver! This won't be the first time that Barks has portrayed the role of Eponine, as she starred in a London production back in 201o and last year performed in character at the 25th anniversary concert held at the O2 Arena.

The project is being produced by Working Title Films and distributed by Universal. Though the project is still in pre-production, it's scheduled to be released onDecember 7, 2012.

[sheppard01]

i'm looking forward to this movie.
my favorite musical of all times!

[QT II]

The Role Of Eponine In Tom Hooper's Les Miserables Goes To Newcomer Samantha Barks
published: 2012-02-01 01:23:16 Author: Eric Eisenberg



Back in December one of the hottest casting races was launched. It was reported that King's Speech director Tom Hooper was on the lookout to find the proper actress to play Eponine in his adaptation of Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil's Les Miserables musical. Initial reports said that Taylor Swift, Lea Michele, Scarlett Johansson and Evan Rachel Wood were all up for the part, and a few weeks after that it looked as though Swift had become the frontrunner in the race. But now, out of nowhere, a newcomer has swept in and taken the role.

Producer Cameron Mackintosh announced today that Samantha Barks has landed the coveted role of Eponine in Tom Hooper's film, according to Deadline. She joins a stacked cast that includes Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, and Aaron Tveit. Barks is a newcomer to the movie world - though she has done some television acting - but is not new to the spotlight. In 2008 she starred on the UK reality show "I'd Do Anything," a show that had unknown musical performers compete for a role in a West End revival of Lionel Bart's Oliver! This won't be the first time that Barks has portrayed the role of Eponine, as she starred in a London production back in 201o and last year performed in character at the 25th anniversary concert held at the O2 Arena.

The project is being produced by Working Title Films and distributed by Universal. Though the project is still in pre-production, it's scheduled to be released onDecember 7, 2012.

She looks like Jessie J - I was expecting her to burst out singing "Price Tag"

[jingdalagan]

She looks like Jessie J - I was expecting her to burst out singing "Price Tag"

ironically, she doesn't sound that way.

here's a sample of her prowess

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFzu6RhRyJo

[jingdalagan]

Aha! Now I know why @MsLeaSalonga recommended Samantha Barks for the role

Les Miserables 25th Anniversary

[pollywog]

Samantha Barks in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAugB...eature=related

[jayjay09]

Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Russell Crowe dayummm

Not a huge fan of Tom Hooper but I'll wait for this!

[mikomouse]

I remember when the rumored reports was that Taylor Swift will play Eponine.

[QT II]

I remember when the rumored reports was that Taylor Swift will play Eponine.

For the love of all things decent, NO......

Eponine shouldn't sound like some trailer-park honey from the Deep South

[jingdalagan]

For the love of all things decent, NO......

Eponine shouldn't sound like some trailer-park honey from the Deep South

that was pretty harsh

on the other hand, i couldn't imagine her outdoing Lea Michele in the auditions for the role of Eponine (mahirap paniwalaan)

[jingdalagan]

so this is the Eponine look that she sported on the Les Miserables anniversary (Nick Jonas as Marius?)

[jingdalagan]

Samantha Barks lands Eponine role in Les Miserables film
1 February 2012 Last updated at 09:12 GMT

Cameron Mackintosh surprised Barks with the news on stage in Manchester

Actress Samantha Barks was given the "biggest surprise" when impresario Cameron Mackintosh joined her on stage to hand her a role in a Hollywood film.

Barks had just finished performing as Nancy in Oliver! at Manchester's Palace Theatre when Mackintosh appeared.

He said she had been chosen to join the cast of Les Miserables, which will also star Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe.

Barks, 21, of Laxey in the Isle of Man, described it as the "happiest moment". She will play the role of Eponine.

The former competitor in the BBC talent show I'd Do Anything said the news was "still sinking in" and it was the "biggest surprise of my life".

On stage, Mackintosh said he had searched theatres in Hollywood and on New York's Broadway and London's West End to find the right actress.

The impresario, who previously cast Barks in the role in a theatre production of the musical, said the film's director, Tom Hooper, had chosen her to reprise it on the big screen.

It had previously been reported that singer Taylor Swift would play the tragic Eponine, one of the central characters in the story, set in 19th Century France and originally a novel by Victor Hugo.

The Les Miserables film is due to be released in December and will also feature actresses Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried, who previously appeared in the screen version of the hit musical Mamma Mia!

Mackintosh said it was "so rare" for a recently unknown performer to make such a quick rise "in our business".

"This is a real rags-to-riches story - a 17-year-old who had done nothing when she started out on I'd Do Anything on the BBC," he said.

In 2008, Barks reached the final of the show, which allowed the public to choose an unknown actress for the role of Nancy for a new production of Lionel Bart's Oliver!

She finished third in the competition, behind winner Jodie Prenger, but eventually landed the role of Nancy in 2011.

[jingdalagan]

Eddie Redmayne flexes vocal chords for Les Miserables
By Tim Masters
Entertainment and arts correspondent, BBC News


Eddie Redmayne has been testing his live singing skills on set, ahead of filming Les Miserables later this year.

Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper wants to capture his all-star cast singing live - not miming to a soundtrack - for his version of the hit musical

"I'm in hardcore singing lessons," Redmayne told the BBC at Bafta on Wednesday.

"I was down in Pinewood yesterday doing some tests with Tom and it's all happening."

Also starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables starts filming in March and will be released on 7 December.

The story, based on Victor Hugo's epic novel, sees Jackman play ex-convict Jean Valjean, hunted for decades by the policeman Javert (Crowe) after he breaks parole. Hathaway plays factory worker Fantine.

Redmayne - who starred opposite Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn - plays student Marius.

The 30-year-old actor said he was attracted by the "spontaneity" of singing live.


"If you record an album and then make a music video to that album you are restricted by the choices you made. It is months in advance of what you know what your character is actually going to be doing."

He added: "So the idea is that the piano will play and we'll sing live - they've tested it all and I think it will be good."

On his approach to singing the solo Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, Redmayne said: "You have to forget all the versions you've heard and deconstruct the song and try to find your own way through it. We'll have to wait and see whether it works or not."

Redmayne, currently playing Richard II at London's Donmar Warehouse, also stars in the BBC's forthcoming version of Birdsong.

[jingdalagan]

Samantha Bark's version of "On My Own"

[rictos16]

buti nga natauhan si Tom Hooper. I don't think Taylor can handle the high notes talaga.

[jingdalagan]

wow! another villain role for Helena Bonham-Carter

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Mistress of the House: Helena Bonham Carter Will Be Madame Thénardier in Les Miz Movie
By Kenneth Jones
09 Feb 2012


Helena Bonham Carter, the actress who created a frisky Mrs. Lovett in the film musical "Sweeney Todd," will play craven Madame Thénardier in the movie version of the international-hit pop musical Les Misérables, producer Cameron Mackintosh told Playbill.com.

As for Madame T's husband and partner in crime, Thénardier, who moves from innkeeper to bandit over the expanse of the Victor Hugo tale, Mackintosh was keeping mum on Feb. 8. Filming under director Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") begins in London in March.

"You can print the most reliable rumor," Mackintosh said with a laugh, skirting an official announcement of the rumored-in-negotiations Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat"). "I don't think they've been announced yet, so I'm being slightly cagey, but I know who they are! They're a wonderful couple. I just can't tell you if everything is signed! Actually, I can tell you that certainly Madame Thénardier is Helena Bonham Carter. I can tell you that. Which isn't shabby. We have the most amazing cast, now we have to make a bloody good film. I have every hope we will."

Read about the new song written for the film. Hugh Jackman stars as heroic Jean Valjean. Read the recent Playbill story about the Les Miz film cast.

A two-time Oscar nominee, Helena Bonham Carter was Academy Award-nominated for her work in "The King's Speech" (Supporting Role Oscar nominee) and "The Wings of the Dove" (Leading Role Oscar nominee), and appeared in the films "Fight Club," "Howards End," "A Room With a View," "Alice in Wonderland," "Big Fish," "Hamlet" and many others.

[jingdalagan]

One Song More! Les Miz Film Will Have New Song and Live Singing; Cameron Mackintosh Reveals All
By Kenneth Jones
08 Feb 2012

Les Misérables producer Cameron Mackintosh confirmed that the in-production film version of the epic Victor Hugo-inspired musical will feature a new song for Jean Valjean, the hero played by Hugh Jackman.

The actor Tweeted on Feb. 7 that he was honored to be learning the new song with composer Claude-Michel Schönberg. When stage and screen star Jackman uses Twitter, fans listen.

"Well, he did warn us he was going to Tweet," Mackintosh told Playbill.com on Feb. 8. "He didn't hear the song until yesterday when he went through it with Claude-Michel."

Written by the stage hit's original songwriting team of Schönberg, Alain Boublil and lyricist Herbert Kretzmer, the new number is called "Suddenly," the producer revealed.

"It's a really lovely new song," Mackintosh said by telephone from London, where the film, directed by Oscar winner Tom Hooper, is in rehearsal before shooting starts in March. "It was something that Alain and Claude-Michel came up with, after a passage in the book, which beautifully explains what happens when [Valjean] takes Cosette from the inn and looks after her. Herbie's written a lovely lyric to it, and we're all delighted how it seems to fit into the film version.
"The whole thing has been written by Alain and Claude-Michel in the same way they've worked with Herbie on the original score — I think rather religiously. They've gone back to their working methods of 30 years ago!"

When asked if there might be an additional original song played over the closing credits, Mackintosh said with a laugh, "No, no. The one thing you don't have to worry about [with] Les Miz is there are enough tunes! I mean, we're going to have great fun compiling reprises — all of the songs — that we want to put over the credits, which I'm sure will be endless."

The producer confirmed the accuracy of reports that the vocals for the film would be sung live rather than dubbed. Most of the 1986 stage musical is sung-through, so dubbing would be a chore.

Mackintosh explained, "We're doing something which has not been done before on this scale. There is a huge amount of music and a huge amount of singing in Les Misérables; you can't get the performances except through the voice. The whole thing that we have to achieve with the movie is that we tell a story through music. It's a film story we're telling. Therefore, we need to take the audience into that world.

"One of the things that impressed me about [director] Tom [Hooper] when he first showed his interest in being the director of the movie is that he both embraced the score and also wanted to create live sound, and get the excitement of the performance and the depth that you only get…by recording it live. Over the last four or five years, technology has moved so far that it is now something that is possible to try. I'm sure we're going to learn a lot on the way, but we're all up for that adventure."

Like the refreshed 25th anniversary U.K. production and current U.S. national tour of Les Miz, the film will be sung with an emphasis on of-the-moment naturalistic acting.

"Tom is going to take that approach in his own way with the movie," Mackintosh said. "The very fact that it is a movie — it has a degree of realism, which the stage doesn't require. We have to make the audience absolutely believe in the way that we're telling the story. Live performance — with live thoughts that happen to be sung — is very much part of what we need to do to [credibly tell the story]. We have a fantastic cast; many of them are drawn either from the musical theatre or can sing in a way that music is second nature to the way that they act. That's why we're all very excited about the adventure that we're entering."

The live singing is also practical. He added, "You don't have any option with a musical like this because if you don't create the performances within the music, and use the music to tell the story through the lyrics, there isn't anything else. It's not great acres of book to establish the drama, so it is through the music and lyrics. And, Herbie Kretzmer's lyrics are marvelous, and they can be spoken in many different ways."

buti nga natauhan si Tom Hooper. I don't think Taylor can handle the high notes talaga.

pasalamat tayo sa convincing power ni Ms. Lea Salonga

[jingdalagan]

Gamine Glory! Les Miz Film Finds Its Eponine in Samantha Barks
By Kenneth Jones
31 Jan 2012

The soulful, yearning, tragic Eponine in the forthcoming film musical of Les Misérables will not be played by a speculated-about pop star. The part has been won by Samantha Barks, who embodied the belting street urchin in the London production of Les Miz in 2010 and again in the show's 25th anniversary London concert at the O2 Arena in 2011.

Universal Pictures/Working Title Films confirmed the casting to Playbill.com on Jan. 31.

Barks, a finalist in "I'd Do Anything," the BBC-TV reality search to find a leading lady to play Nancy in the West End production of Oliver!, secured her first leading role in 2008 when she headed the cast of the touring version of the recent West End production of Cabaret, playing Sally Bowles opposite Wayne Sleep as the Emcee.

Barks hails from the Isle of Man, which was re-named "Isle of Sam" for a day to mark her success in the reality TV show.

Cameron Mackintosh appeared at the curtain call of the Jan. 31 performance of Oliver! at The Manchester Palace and surprised Barks, who plays Nancy on the U.K. tour, by announcing her casting in the film.
In the international stage hit Les Misérables Eponine is in love with the handsome student Marius, who is in love with Cosette. "He was never mine to lose," Eponine concludes, but she nevertheless famously sings "On My Own," reaching for Marius from afar — and even putting herself in harm's way in support of his push for social justice. "A Little Fall of Rain" reunites them. The role was created by Frances Ruffelle, who will appear in a cameo in the film.

The complete cast has not been announced, but casting for most of the principal roles has been announced.

As previously reported, the cast includes Russell Crowe (Inspector Javert), Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean), Anne Hathaway (Fantine), Eddie Redmayne (Marius), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette) and Aaron Tveit (Enjolras). Negotiations for other roles continue. Casting for the roles of Eponine's corrupt parents, the Thenardiers, is still in negotiation.

Variety reported that George Blagden will play Grantaire in the film.

Academy Award winner Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") is directing the film, which is based on the classic Victor Hugo novel and stage musical. William Nicholson, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg wrote the screenplay. Herbert Kretzmer wrote the show's English lyrics.

The picture, to be released Dec. 7, 2012, is A Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh production produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh.

*

As previously reported, Colm Wilkinson, the original Jean Valjean in the 1985 London and 1987 Broadway productions of Les Misérables, will play the pivotal role of the Bishop of Digne in the new film.

The good bishop's act of kindness and mercy propels petty criminal Valjean into a life in service of humanity, setting the events of the story in motion. "I have bought your soul for God," sings the cleric.

Irish-born Wilkinson was a 1987 Best Actor Tony Award nominee for playing Valjean. It was his only Broadway appearance. He played the title role in the Toronto company of The Phantom of the Opera; that performance was captured on a cast recording.

The show's original producer (and one of the film producers) Cameron Mackintosh told Daily Mail columnist Baz Bamigboye that Frances Ruffelle, the orginal Eponine in London and on Broadway, will have a cameo in the film, playing a prostitute in the "Lovely Ladies" sequence. She won a 1987 Featured Actress Tony Award for playing Eponine.

[jingdalagan]

i may not agree with the Taylor Swift hatred that sparked after rumors that she bagged the role but i agree that this is not the role for her. i've seen her act in CSI (maybe the only time i remember seeing her act) and her facial expression is blank. so if she delivered a blank performance in an "ordinary" TV series (it's the role that might have been more ordinary than the TV series involved), what performance do you expect if something as massive as Les Miz is involved?

and by the way, nice to see another project for Helena Bonham-Carter. gandang isampal ito sa mga nagsasabing kaya lang siya nagkaka-project kasi asawa siya ni Tim Burton. may talent kaya siya (check her performance in Harry Potter kaya).