New Les Miserables Movie - casting spoilers!

[Xanthe]

I am so excited about the new Les Mis movie. It starts shooting in the new year and is being directed by Tom Hooper (who directed The King's Speech) and it stars Hugh Jackman as Valjean and Russell Crowe as Javert. I think this is inspired casting! Those two will riff off each other perfectly and bring an amazing intensity to that complicated relationship. I can't wait to find out who will be playing the Thenardiers, Fantine, Eponine etc! Anyone know anything about those roles yet?

[phoenix]

Honestly Im still on the fence about this movie. Im glad camerom macintosh is producing because les mis is his (26 year old) baby and he'll be there to keep it true but it still makes me antsy, its a long ass play!LOL and cutting it down is a given

you re right, I think Russel Crowe and Hugh Jackman will really play well off eachother and I can imagine their ""confrontation". I dont know anything else about confirmed roles but Ill definetly come here when I do. I have the musical theatre bug so its nice to find someone to talk about it with!

[Xanthe]

Oh no! I don't think there's ANYTHING they can cut! I hope they don't. Sigh. I just thought they'd keep it as is because I know CM is in charge and I thought he'd want to preserve its integrity. I don't think with a musical there's anything wrong with it being pretty long. I hope they don't waste screen time on establishing shots and slow, panoramic pans around and fight sequences and then have to cut a song or two! Although...if they do cut any songs, I hope it's the Marius/Cosette love songs *g*. Which it won't be because I guess those are kind of important to the plot :-(

[bearsandharleys]

I cannot wait to see this. I was so excited when I read that they would be making this. I am actually going tomorrow night to see it here in DC for the 4th time. I love this musical. This is my favorite one, with Cats coming in a close second.

[phoenix]

Im less optimistic about this then you are.... I hope Im wrong!

 Even in Broadway standards its considered a long play (as NPH put it at the Tony's - Broadway shows are "2 hour, live action, barely affordable unlipsynced versions of Glee" lol so I cant imagine them not cutting some songs out and while I am totally with you on cutting out the Cosette/Marius songs I highly doubt it too. I really like the song `turning` but I can see it as one of the songs to go because its not really important for the storyline.....

Who knows though? Ill be very happy to be wrong in this case

[Xanthe]

Im less optimistic about this then you are.... I hope Im wrong!

 Even in Broadway standards its considered a long play (as NPH put it at the Tony's - Broadway shows are "2 hour, live action, barely affordable unlipsynced versions of Glee" lol so I cant imagine them not cutting some songs out and while I am totally with you on cutting out the Cosette/Marius songs I highly doubt it too. I really like the song `turning` but I can see it as one of the songs to go because its not really important for the storyline.....

Who knows though? Ill be very happy to be wrong in this case

I love "Turning" but yes, I can see that one being axed. I'm wondering what else they CAN axe and still have the storyline make sense though.

[Xanthe]

I cannot wait to see this. I was so excited when I read that they would be making this. I am actually going tomorrow night to see it here in DC for the 4th time. I love this musical. This is my favorite one, with Cats coming in a close second.

Another Les mis fan! Yay! I've seen about -  well, i don't know because I never counted but I'd be surprised if it was less than 15 times - although that WAS spread out over about 20 years! I always love it. It's my favourite musical of all time :-)

[phoenix]

Im actually a faux-fan. Ive never seen Les mis live although I do have the 25th concert and seen many online versions. Lets just say that life got in the way.......

[Xanthe]

I've just seen an updated casting list for the Les Mis movie and I'm so excited! But I wish I knew who was playing Marius and Enjolras. Anyone know?

The latest I've found out is as follows:

Jean Valjean: Hugh Jackman
Javert: Russell Crowe
Thenardier: Geoffrey Rush (I think this is great casting)
Madame T: Helena Bonham Carter (again, good casting!)
Eponine: Hayden Panetierre - I must admit I'm really not sure about this. Can she sing?
Fantine: Anne Hathaway - I think she could be pretty good.
Cosette: Emma Watson - hmm - can she sing? Cosette has a lot of really high notes!

Overall, I think it's looking great. And HJ tweeted that he's begun rehearsals so woot! Mind you, I can imagine that will be a HUGE amount of work - getting a long movie like this to look and sound great. I have every faith they'll bring it together, with this good a cast and the amount of money likely to be thrown at it though. And it does befit the finest stage musical ever. I just hope it can transition okay to the big screen.

[phoenix]

wow that is quite a cast!

[Xanthe]

Yup! I think only three are absolutely definite though - Hugh, Russell and Anne. They released this today though so I'm guessing a lot of the casting spoilers will turn out to be true: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15365261

[phoenix]

they are definetly going a different direction then the film adaptation of Rent where the movie cast was almost all the OBC (in all fairness that was possible because ionly 9 years had gone by from stage to screen). Im excited!

[phoenix]

http://technorati.com/entertainment/celebrity/article/les-misrables-cast-taylor-swift-and/
Opinions?

[Xanthe]

Ugh! I thought Geoffrey Rush was going to play Thenardier? HE would be fantastic but not Sasha Baron Cohen! NO!

Seyfried is good casting. Taylor Swift - hmmm. Eponine needs someone who can ACT - I'd prefer Seyfried to play her because at least she can act and Cosette doesn't matter so much as she's just winsome love interest.

Eddie Redmayne as Marius? Really? I hope he can sing! So no, not wild about the latest batch of casting spoilers :-(. Anyone else?

[phoenix]

 :oI agree 100%, I really hope there's no truth to these. Rumours!