Movie-Review ... "Les Misérables"

Les Misérables

Les Misérables

Les Misérables is an upcoming British musical drama film produced by Working Title Films and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film is based on the musical of the same name by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Herbert Kretzmer, which is in turn based on Les Misérables, the 1862 French novel by Victor Hugo.

The film is directed by Tom Hooper, scripted by William Nicholson, and stars an ensemble cast led by Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Tveit also star in a supporting roles. The film tells the story of Jean Valjean, a former prisoner who becomes mayor of a town in France. Valjean agrees to take care of Cosette, the illegitimate daughter of Fantine, and must avoid being captured again by Javert, a police inspector.

Development of Les Misérables began in the late 1980s. After the musical's 25th Anniversary concert, producer Cameron Mackintosh announced that the film resumed development. Hooper and Nicholson were approached in March 2011 and the main characters were cast in 2011. Principal photography of the film commenced in March 2012, and took place in various locations in Winchester and Portsmouth in Hampshire, England, as well as Paris in France.

Les Misérables is scheduled to be released on 25 December 2012 in the United States and on 11 January 2013 in the United Kingdom

Main characters

• Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, a Frenchman released from Toulon prison after 19 years of imprisonment for stealing bread and failed attempts of escaping from the prison.
• Russell Crowe as Inspector Javert, a police inspector who releases Valjean on parole, then later dedicates his life to imprisoning him again^.
• Anne Hathaway as Fantine, a struggling factory worker and mother of an illegitimate child, Cosette. She is eventually forced to turn to prostitution.
• Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, the illegitimate daughter of Fantine who has grown into a beautiful teenager under Valjean's care and falls in love with Marius.
  • Isabelle Allen plays Cosette as a child.
• Samantha Barks as Éponine, the Thénardiers' destitute daughter. As a child, she was spoiled as well as unkind to Cosette. When she is older, she is friends with, and secretly pines for, Marius. Barks previously played the role at the 25th Anniversary concert and in the West End production from 2010–2011. Taylor Swift had been previously rumored to have been offered the role. Scarlett Johansson, Evan Rachel Wood and Lea Michele were reportedly considered for the role.
  • Natalya Angel Wallace plays Éponine as a child.
• Eddie Redmayne as Marius Pontmercy, a student revolutionary who is friends with the Thenardiers' daughter, Éponine, but falls in love with Cosette.
• Aaron Tveit as Enjolras, the leader of a student revolt and a friend of Marius.
• Sacha Baron Cohen as Thénardier, a common thief who is also an innkeeper. He is also the father of Éponine and Gavroche.
• Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thénardier, the unscrupulous innkeeper's wife who, along with her husband, houses and abuses Cosette until Valjean "buys" her from them after Fantine's death. Madame Thénardier is Éponine and Gavroche's mother. Hooper collaborated with Bonham Carter in The King's Speech, in which she portrayed Queen Elizabeth. Bonham Carter and Cohen previously co-starred in the film adaptation of the musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
• Daniel Huttlestone as Gavroche, a streetwise urchin who helps the revolutionaries. Also son of the Thénardiers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables_%282012_film%29