Tom Hooper to take on Les Miserables

[Raiden]

The cassette tape version of the Broadway cast album actually skipped the whole prologue and started with "At the End of the Day". I remember at one point I recorded my mom's CD onto a blank tape just so I could hear the whole recording.

Oh, the 80s...

I was so happy when I finally got my own CD player.

I feel like looking for my Les Mis CD after reading this thread (I have the Original Broadway Recording and the 25th Anniversary Concert).

 

[Angel_Faerie]

Away from the 25th anniversary! Away I say! Nick Jonas. Nick. ****ing. Jonas. *shudder*

Though I do confess the rest of the cast did quite well.

 

[Raiden]

Away from the 25th anniversary! Away I say! Nick Jonas. Nick. ****ing. Jonas. *shudder*

Though I do confess the rest of the cast did quite well.

Heh, I usually listen to CD in my car and I'd just skip Jonas' track than listen to that ****. So it's all good.

 

[Angel_Faerie]

Good plan.

 

[narrows101]

Cool stuff in here, interview with composer:

Speaking of Boublil and Schonberg, when I interviewed Boublil last week, he talked a bit about the much-anticipated film version of Les Miserables, which is shooting now at famed Pinewood Studios in England, and also in France. Those comments didn't make it into my print review, but thanks to the miracle of blogging, here are some highlights:

"The whole of Paris has been reconstructed at Pinewood," Boublil says, "including the Bastille, which you don't see in the musical but you will on film. Up until this point, the biggest soundstage at Pinewood was one for the James Bond films, but they had to build an even bigger one for this."

He raved about the cast: Hugh Jackman as Valjean, Russell Crowe as Javert, Anne Hathaway as Fantine, Samantha Barks as Eponine (she reportedly beat out Taylor Swift , Lea Michele and Evan Rachel Wood for the role), and Helena Bonham Carter and Sasha Baron Cohen as the comically evil Thenardiers.

"Anne Hathaway absolutely reinvents 'I Dreamed a Dream,' " an obviously thrilled Boublil says. "She says she doesn't really know how she does it," he continues with a laugh. "She says, 'I am a French girl and I am singing in English. That's what I think about.' Samantha Barks is fairly unknown, but she played Eponine onstage in London and she's fantastic."

We can't wait. The movie version is slated for release Dec. 14, 2012, but that'll probably change. It's being directed by Tom Hooper of The King's Speech fame.

http://popcultureblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/03/late-credits-for-do-belated-cr.html

 

[Clu]

hating on nick, he did his best lol just look at what was around him, so the level of talent was pretty high, while his was mid level.

more info that comes out, the better the movie looks and gets.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Well, to be fair, Marius is a naive boy who gets in way over his head, and somehow Nick Jonas pulled it off.

 

[danoyse]

Is there an official recording of the 25th Anniversary concert? There's a CD of the 2010 London cast, but I've only been able to find the DVD of the concert.

 

[narrows101]

I loaned my 02 concert DVD to a co-worker, woman in her fifties. She had never seen Les Mis, didn't know anything about it. She absolutely LOVED it. And then she said to me, "you didn't tell me Nick Jonas was in it, I thought he was GREAT!!!"

So I guess the moral is, to each his own LOL.

 

[Silvermoon]

Is there an official recording of the 25th Anniversary concert? There's a CD of the 2010 London cast, but I've only been able to find the DVD of the concert.

I don't think there is one. What I ended up doing to get the audio was just rip the DVD (which I own) onto my computer (I have a mac so I used Instant Handbrake), then extracted the audio from the movie file with Quicktime and then imported that audio file into iTunes. Only problem is, it's one big long track (haven't been able to go through and break it down into smaller pieces yet) so I have to fast forward to get to what I really want to hear *lol*

I loaned my 02 concert DVD to a co-worker, woman in her fifties. She had never seen Les Mis, didn't know anything about it. She absolutely LOVED it. And then she said to me, "you didn't tell me Nick Jonas was in it, I thought he was GREAT!!!"

So I guess the moral is, to each his own LOL.

Yeah, I don't hate him with a blind passion that some seem too.. for me it was just that, I felt bad so for him and just felt he was miscast - and that's not really his fault. On his solo numbers it didn't come across as bad because it was just him. But on the duets/ensemble numbers - he's surrounded by these powerhouses like Alfie, Ramin, heck even the girls, and he would just get completely drowned out.

 

[danoyse]

I heard Nick Jonas was terrific in How to Succeed.

I didn't hate him, he just looked painfully overmatched by everyone on stage.

 

[The Guard]

The problem with Jonas' performance wasn't so much that he couldn't sing the part at all...but more that he didn't know how to sing the part, and that he wasn't acting much, and was thus quickly overshadowed.

 

[Angel_Faerie]

Supposedly Anne Hathaway is trying to lose quite a bit of weight to look sickly for Fantine's death scene. Take this with a grain of salt, however. This story comes from The Mirror.

Anne Hathaway on extreme crash diet for Les Miserables film role


Everybody’s seems to be talking about Hunger Games... and it’s probably no different at Anne Hathaway’s house.

But it won’t be the blockbuster film the Oscar-nominated actress is on about, it’ll be the extreme “two apples a day” crash diet she’s started for her part as Fantine in Les Miserables.

Anne has been ordered by movie execs to shed 16lb in less than 20 days so director Tom Hooper can shoot the tragic character’s death bed scenes.

The Devil Wears Prada star, 29, is currently a size 10, which has been fine for shooting scenes before single mum and prostitute Fantine falls gravely ill.

Now, rather than eating the recommended dietary allowance of around 2,000 calories a day, Anne is consuming fewer than 500.

By the end of filming she will be an emaciated size six. My film set source says: “Anne is playing a destitute factory worker-come-lady of the night.

"Unfortunately, she only has 15 to 20 days to lose as much weight as possible – up to a stone-and-a-half – because she’s been filming the scenes showing her fit and healthy, almost slightly chubby.

“It’s not ideal but, as with any high-budget movie, there are strict time constraints.

"Producers have assigned her a personal trainer and she is literally eating nothing more than a couple of apples a day, and some protein – mainly in the form of a shake.

“Anne knows the risk of such an extreme diet and will undergo weekly medicals to make sure everything is still functioning as it should do.”

The movie is based on the hit West End musical and also stars hunks Eddie Redmayne, Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. The cast began filming early this month.

It’s due to hit cinemas in December, so Anne’ll have time to get her natural shape back for the premiere...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/anne-hathaway-on-extreme-crash-diet-776610

 

[Majik1387]

I think that's kind of ridiculous honestly

 

[Silvermoon]

Supposedly Anne Hathaway is trying to lose quite a bit of weight to look sickly for Fantine's death scene. Take this with a grain of salt, however. This story comes from The Mirror.



http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/anne-hathaway-on-extreme-crash-diet-776610

If it's true, I hope she's being very careful and that she definitely does not do more than her body can handle I know it seems a cop out, but they can always use CGI to emaciate her more if they need to. Though not the best movies in the world, I thought Twilight:Breaking Dawn Pt1 did a phenomenal - and very convincing - job at emaciating Kristen Stewart via CGI during the advance stages of Bella's pregnancy when she's nothing but skin and bones.

 

[Majik1387]

Nothing that make up and cgi enhancing can't take care of. Skinny Captain America anyone?

Plus, if her costume in the scene is anything like the majority of the show's versions, all that would be showing wouldn't require such a diet.

 

[Angel_Faerie]

Keep in mind that Hugh lost weight for Prisoner Valjean, so this story isn't completely out of the realm of possibility. However, he lost the weight over a long period of time.

If it is true, like Silvermoon I hope she's safe about this. It'd be a shame to lose a lovely, talented actress like Anne for what amounts to only a few minutes of film.

But honestly, I doubt it's true. She probably will lose some weight to look thinner, but that much in such a short time span is just inhumane. The "Breaking Dawn: Part 1" method would be smartest.

 

[narrows101]

I never thought about her having to be thin, but Fantine is dying of consumption at the end so that totally makes sense about the appearance. If true, it says doctors will be there so I guess they know what they are doing. And I bet this isn't the first time an actor had to do something like this.

The worst I've ever seen was Christian Bale when he did "The Machinist."

 

[kvz5]

She already lost a lot of weight for Catwoman. Wouldn't that be enough?

 

[Pink Ranger]

Generally, operas and musicals have some allowances over "realism," especially when it comes to physical appearance (i.e. a 200 pound apple-cheeked Italian woman playing a starving seamstress dying of TB). Anne is already skinny enough to pass for Fantine, I hope they don't push her further.

 

[narrows101]

Fantine is dying of consumption towards the end, they probably want her to look sickly and have a marked difference from when she was a factory worker.

 

[Majik1387]

Again, nothing that makeup and minor cgi(if needed) can do.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Fatine is dying of consumption towards the end, they probably want her to look sickly and have a marked difference from when she was a factory worker.

But it's still a sweeping romantic epic, so it has to be "Hollywood sickly," not "Calcutta leper sickly." Basically Anne as she is, but with pale makeup, blueish-white lips and some dark circles around her eyes, so she's still beautiful, but in a tragic way.

 

[narrows101]

So here's the supposed truth from Anne's rep:

Anne Hathaway’s Rep Shoots Down Crazy Les Miz Crash Diet Rumors

Anne Hathaway once commented that all she could eat was “kale and dust” in order to squeeze into her Dark Knight Rises Catwoman outfit. So what’s she eating to portray an impoverished French sex worker in the 1800s? Apparently it’s still more than the 500 calories a day reported by the U.K.’s The Mirror. After the paper alleged Hathaway was attempting to lose 16 pounds in 20 days to shoot the death scene for her Les Miz character Fantine, Anne’s rep spoke out about the rumor. “The story is a huge exaggeration,” Stephen Huvane told HuffPo. “Anne is on a special diet, but is not looking to lose that much weight and she’s consuming more than 500 calories a day. She just needs to look more frail as she is playing a prostitute who is dying of tuberculosis.” See, if we were Hathaway, we would just demand the director give us some gaunt CGI cheekbones in post. Maybe only Oscar winners can request that? Next year, Anne!

http://www.thefablife.com/2012-03-30/anne-hathaway-les-miz-crash-diet-rumors/

 

[Angel_Faerie]

Thank goodness!