As far as I know, no it's not common. Usually a full orchestra plays the music in a movie, while in a stage production, it's a much smaller ensemble. Then again, the music could still be done by a full orchestra but the music arranged differently. If I remember right the movie version Buenos Aires is much more up tempo than the stage version.
It's not customary, but this movie is doing live recording, which hasn't been attempted by any major movie musical before. That might factor into it, but given what they can do with sound now, perhaps not; they just seem to be going for a more low-key sound, at least for the one song we've heard.
No nothing new on Les Miserables, except that there is a website for the movie. There is also a Facebook page and twitter account, both links can be found on the website. Oh and here's my favorite version of Paint Your Wagon. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM5-xFenaZI[/yt]
Les Miserables twitter @LesMiserables looking for 24601 followers and then will release a special video from the set. Also I liked this LesMiz in under 14 minutes. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9IWAxSpgKA[/yt]
If you mean the musical, this is the first film version of it. The book itself has been filmed quite a few times: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Misérables#Film_and_television (although some of the "films" listed, are just theatre plays someone recorded)
Some nice new stuff has been released in the last few days: a featurette (which shows snippets from the shooting of several scenes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STv2Z0AB_TI and a new poster: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=95135
The script has started to circulate online. I haven't gone through most of it, but it's got the lyrics for the new song, "Suddenly" (page 54), which looks like it has the makings of a very moving scene.
It is hard to make HBC look ugly isn't it? Even as Bellatrix she was still a nice looking murderous sociopath.
I saw this TV Spot of Les Miserables while watching the Election returns on MSNBC. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD8OWbrMi1E[/yt]
I plan to go and see this film when it comes out. I'm all the more piqued about it since I went to the audition for background extra roles in this film, which involved standing outside in the freezing cold for 3 and a half hours to fill in a form which took merely ten minutes! I was unemployed at the time and for a salary of £110 per appearance I couldn't argue with that. However, by the time they got back to me I was already employed so couldn't make the appearances.
Nice TV spot (although I could have done without the narrator). Some cinemas have also gotten a new trailer, I wonder when that will officially be released online.
And the new trailer's here (and looks great)! http://www.youtube.com/watch?annota...UYL5h9-PO8w&src_vid=YHl340nWKFA&v=EkHHHUk8RCw