First photo of Jackman as Valjean (looks like it's from the beginning when he is in prison or was just released): http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie...man-ragged-les-miserables-look-191120987.html
And now the first look at Crowe's Javert: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...ell-Crowe-Inspector-Javert-trusted-steed.html It seems like we are slowly getting shots from all the characters.
Awesome - didn't know that Colm Wilkinson will be playing a role in this. He's THE definitive Valjean to me, I'm glad he's got a part. Mark
Hathaway and Jackman filming and singing at the barricades: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXIsH8zMOfk I'm not really sure where this fits in the film, maybe: Spoiler: where the scene could go Is it the reprise in the finale? Although why would Valjean then be again on the barricades? Thinking back to the "good old times"?
Lots of new photos, the only ones that are missing are the Thenardiers, otherwise I think we've now seen all the main characters: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=90758
The first trailer, with Anne Hathaway's version of "I Dreamed A Dream" (they seem to be playing down the instrumentals a bit). The visual style looks right.
I think they may be downplaying the music for the trailer. The music may be brought up in mixing once the film is finished. It does look good.
^I can still find several uploads. On another forum someone noted that I Dreamed A Dream seems to have been moved back a bit in the story. I wonder if they moved other songs around as well.
Yes, but the original link posted is not there, so I posted a new link. They may have moved other songs. It may make more sense in the way the movie is being filmed to move songs around. A famous example is West Side Story. In the play Cool is sung before the gang fight and Gee, Officer Krupke after it. The movie moves them and they flow better that way, IMHO. Several songs are moved actually. Although the movie The Phantom of the Opera, did not move any songs, it did move the chandelier falling into the stage to the end to add to the tension of the movie. I did not like that move as much as the stage production, but it made sense in the movie to that to the end.
In that instance, that was how Sondheim intended it to be in the stage version, but in the chaotic production phase Jerome Robbins had already planned out the staging with the idea that they would be in the order they ended up being in, so he said that if they did a movie, they'd switch them to how Sondheim originally wanted (the famous alteration of "America", likewise). In this film, no doubt they're going to have to streamline the story a good bit in order to get it into a manageable film length, so moving the song toward the end probably heightens the impact of it while saving time.
Link didn't work, but here's another: [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk5UStefYmE[/yt] Looks and sounds fantastic!!! The instruments seemed a bit toned down at first, but then seemed to pick up - and the song cut away before a chance for one of the "big moments." Overall though it seems from the brief glimpse like they're going for a slightly toned down, quieter and more pained version of the song... which, you know, makes sense since it looks like they're setting it (part of it?) after "Lovely Ladies." ETA: In fact who knows, maybe they'll cut "Lovely Ladies" entirely?
Lovely Ladies may survive the cut. There is brief shot of three woman coming out of three doorways. Lovely Ladies does tell of Fantines fall into despair after she's fired for, ironically, not being a lovely lady. Then again there could also be a Directors Cut that's closer in length and libretto the stage production.
I haven't watched a lot of musicals, but is it common for film versions to tone down the instruments a bit (compared to the stage versions)? Ah, sorry, I misunderstood you.