Les Miserables (Film Musical)

[Dubstar]

what studio is producing/releasing this?

[JenM]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

what studio is producing/releasing this?

Universal/Working Title.

[Dubstar]

thanks. Their website states the film is scheduled to be released in cinemas December 7th of this year - that's really quick if you think about it.

[JenM]

And apparently they're not supposed to start shooting until March, although they go into rehearsals later this month. Should be interesting to see if they still make the release date.

I'm looking forward to it, though. It's my favorite musical. I'm a little iffy on the prospect of Taylor Swift as Eponine (yikes), but the rest of the cast is shaping up great so far. I saw Hugh Jackman's one-man show on Broadway twice this fall, he was pretty amazing.

[Dubstar]

well at least Nick Jonas is no where in sight for the film version

[in2video2]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

well at least Nick Jonas is no where in sight for the film version

You noticed that too?

[JenM]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

well at least Nick Jonas is no where in sight for the film version

Yay! Although nearly every theater geek I know was out on a collective ledge yesterday at the Taylor Swift news.

Aaron Tveit - he starred on Broadway in Next to Normal and Catch Me if You Can - is playing Enjolras. He's supposed to be really good. And Eddie Redmayne from My Week With Marilyn is playing Marius.

Sacha Baron Cohen is supposed to be playing Thernardier. That should be interesting.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by JenM

I'm not sure where you're getting this theory that NYers think it's a tourist trap and wanted it gone. I'm sure people who hated it wanted it gone, but it's actually one of the longest running shows in Broadway history (and a 1987 Tony winner for Best Musical), and the theater community certainly loves shows that stay full and keep people employed as long as possible, so no one would make a movie version just for the purposes of "killing" the stage version.

There are shows that are considered to be staying open just for the tourist buses, the same as Londoners were always a bit embarrassed about "The Mousetrap" being a tourist fixture.
NYC'ers consider themselves the exclusive savvy about what "is" a Broadway musical and what isn't (with the corporations and the marketers trying to dictate it): A show that runs for twenty years starts to lose the initial performers' energy, and just becomes a sort of temple ritual for new struggling actors. (When "Lestat" opened to bad reviews, the joke was "Have you seen that new musical about vampires?" "No, but I've seen that musical about zombies, called 'Beauty & the Beast'" ) And as if that hadn't already seemed to have overstayed its welcome, the trend for musicals seemed to have moved on back to fun cult-movies and then to just plain music-related shows like Memphis, and the late 80's operatic London-musical Epic Drama of Phantom, Les Mis and Miss Saigon just seemed to belong to another heavily overmarketed decade.
Or, as Forbidden Broadway put it,

[Show spoiler]

Forbidden Broadway: Ten Years More - YouTube

Also, a movie version WAS planned back in the early 90s, when the show was in it's heyday on Broadway. I have a program from the Broadway production that actually had this ad on the back page:

Yep--That's where we got the non-musical Liam Neeson/Geoffrey Rush version, after musical negotiations fell through, and we got the concert video (which wasn't technically the musical, to keep the unions happy) instead.
You may have wondered why we rarely see any videos about a new recent musical, we just see the cast in the recording booth recording the cast album...

[JenM]

Originally Posted by EricJ

There are shows that are considered to be staying open just for the tourist buses, the same as Londoners were always a bit embarrassed about "The Mousetrap" being a tourist fixture.
NYC'ers consider themselves the exclusive savvy about what "is" a Broadway musical and what isn't (with the corporations and the marketers trying to dictate it): A show that runs for twenty years starts to lose the initial performers' energy, and just becomes a sort of temple ritual for new struggling actors. (When "Lestat" opened to bad reviews, the joke was "Have you seen that new musical about vampires?" "No, but I've seen that musical about zombies, called 'Beauty & the Beast'" ) And as if that hadn't already seemed to have overstayed its welcome, the trend for musicals seemed to have moved on back to fun cult-movies and then to just plain music-related shows like Memphis, and the late 80's operatic London-musical Epic Drama of Phantom, Les Mis and Miss Saigon just seemed to belong to another heavily overmarketed decade.

Wow, I'm so glad you're here to explain to this NYC'er (and NJ'er) who has been going to Broadway shows for over 30 years how Broadway is perceived to me. Especially when I had to explain to you that the show you think you know so much about closed nearly 10 years ago.

For the record, yes...long-running Broadway shows ultimately become more of a tourist attraction the longer they run. And while us locals tend to move on to the newer shows (and in the cases of shows we've liked since they were new - an occassional revisit), we understand that tourism is a business and theater people need to work.

Full houses bring money to the city and keep people in the theater community employed (not to mention the many restaurants, shops, and even parking facilities in the theater district), so you won't find a movie version being made of any of these shows for the sole purpose of "killing" the stage version. It's cheaper to just close the show.

In the case of Les Mis...the producers did a major cleanup of the show on its 10th Anniversary in 1997 when they felt the show had lost a lot of its luster. They replaced several actors who'd been with the show for so long their performances were becoming lackluster, and shortened the runtime to just under 3 hours to keep the show running a bit cheaper and more efficiently. They wanted the show to run longer and found the best way to do it keeping the integrity of the show intact. It played for another 6 years.

There are many jokes about Lestat - the show was a tremendous flop. However long Beauty & the Beast ran was the least of its problems. And Beauty was another show that moved into a smaller theater (and somewhat downsized) later in the run to make up for its declining tickets sales, but in an effort to keep it running longer. It ran for another 7 years.

If by "music-related shows" you mean "jukebox musicals", then you're misinformed about Memphis. That's an original musical.

Yep--That's where we got the non-musical Liam Neeson/Geoffrey Rush version, after musical negotiations fell through, and we got the concert video (which wasn't technically the musical, to keep the unions happy) instead.

That's completely off too. The 1998 movie version had nothing to do with the musical version. Even one of the major characters from the musical (Eponine) is barely in the 1998 movie.

The concert version happened to celebrate the London production's 10th Anniversary. It had nothing to do with a failed movie production or keeping unions happy. The two projects are completely unrelated.

You may have wondered why we never see any videos about a musical, we just see the cast in the recording booth recording the cast album...

Actually, every Broadway show is filmed for the Lincoln Center archives. And some productions are filmed for commerical release - such as Memphis and Rent.

[Dubstar]

anyone know what the film's running time is?