Produced by Tim Bevan
Eric Fellner
Debra Hayward
Cameron Mackintosh
Screenplay by William Nicholson
Alain Boublil
Claude-Michel Schönberg
Herbert Kretzmer
Based on Les Misérables by
Alain Boublil
Claude-Michel Schönberg
Starring Hugh Jackman
Russell Crowe
Anne Hathaway
Amanda Seyfried
Eddie Redmayne
Helena Bonham Carter
Sacha Baron Cohen
Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg
Cinematography Danny Cohen
Editing by Melanie Ann Oliver
Chris Dickens
Studio Working Title Films
Cameron Mackintosh Ltd.
Relativity Media
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s)
5 December 2012 (London, premiere)
11 January 2013 (United Kingdom)
Running time 158 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Budget $61 million
Box office $379,064,425
Les Misérables is a 2012 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 and Claude-Michel Schönberg 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, Boublil, Schönberg and Herbert Kretzmer, and stars an ensemble cast led by Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, and Amanda Seyfried. The film tells the story of Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who becomes mayor of a town in France. Soon exposed, Valjean agrees to take care of Cosette, the illegitimate daughter of the dying Fantine, but as a fugitive must also avoid being captured again by police inspector Javert. The plot spans 17 years and is set against a backdrop of political turmoil, which in the film culminates in the June Rebellion of France.
Development of Les Misérables based on the stage musical began in the late 1980s. After the musical's 25th Anniversary concert in October 2010, 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 commenced in March 2012, and took place in various locations including Greenwich, London, Winchester and Portsmouth in Hampshire, England, as well as Gourdon, in France.
Les Misérables premiered in London on 5 December 2012, and was released on 25 December 2012 in the United States, on 26 December 2012 in Australia, and on 11 January 2013 in the United Kingdom. The film has received divided, but generally positive reviews, with many critics praising the cast, especially the acting of Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Jackman and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for Hathaway. It has also won four BAFTA Awards, including the Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Hathaway). It has received eight Academy Award nominations that include Best Picture (the first musical nominated since 2002's winner Chicago), Best Actor for Jackman and Best Supporting Actress for Hathaway.
Production
Development
In 1988, Alan Parker was considered to direct a film adaptation of the Les Misérables musical. However, in 1991, Bruce Beresford signed on to be the film's director.
In 1992, producer Cameron Mackintosh announced that the film would be co-produced by TriStar Pictures. However, the film was abandoned, leaving it stuck in development hell. In 2005, Mackintosh later confirmed that interest in turning the musical into a film adaptation had resumed during the early months of that year. Mackintosh said that he wanted the film to be directed by "someone who has a vision for the show that will put the show's original team, including [Mackintosh], back to work." He also said that he wanted the film audiences to make it "fresh as the actual show [itself]."In 2009, producer Eric Fellner began negotiations with Mackintosh to acquire the film's rights and concluded it near the end of 2011. Fellner, Tim Bevan, and Debra Hayward engaged William Nicholson to write a screenplay for the film. Nicholson wrote the draft within six weeks time.
The DVD/Blu-ray release of Les Misérables: 25th Anniversary Concert confirmed an announcement of the musical's film adaptation. Mackintosh then stated at a press conference that the plans for the film adaptation were being made.
Pre-production
In March 2011, director Tom Hooper began negotiations to direct Les Misérables from the screenplay by William Nicholson. Production on the film officially began in June that year, with Cameron Mackintosh and Working Title Films co-producing. Having already approached Hooper prior to production with the desire of playing Jean Valjean, Hugh Jackman began negotiations to star in the film alongside Paul Bettany as Javert.Other stars that became attached to the project were Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter.
In September 2011, Jackman was officially cast as Jean Valjean and Russell Crowe was cast as Javert. The following month, Mackintosh confirmed that Hathaway would play Fantine. For the role, Hathaway allowed her hair to be cut short into a pixie cut on camera for a scene in which her character sells her hair, stating that the lengths she goes to for her roles "don't feel like sacrifices. Getting to transform is one of the best parts of [acting]." The role also required her to lose 25 pounds.
In November 2011, Eddie Redmayne joined the cast as Marius Pontmercy. It was also reported that the shortlist of actresses for the role of Éponine included Scarlett Johansson - who also auditioned for the role of Fantine -, Lea Michele, Taylor Swift, and Evan Rachel Wood. In January 2012, the press reported that Taylor Swift had been officially offered the part, but Swift later revealed that these reports were not entirely accurate. At the end of the month, Cameron Mackintosh made a special appearance during the curtain call of the Oliver! UK tour at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, announcing that the tour's Nancy, Samantha Barks, who had played Éponine in the West End production and in the 25th Anniversary concert, would reprise the role in the film. Barks had been auditioning for 15 weeks up to that point.
Originally, an unknown was sought for the role of Cosette, with an open casting call taking place in New York City in December 2011. However, in January 2012 reports surfaced that Amanda Seyfried had been offered the role instead. Eddie Redmayne confirmed both Seyfried's casting and that of Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thénardier in an interview on 12 January. Hooper confirmed that he would stick to the musical's essentially sung-through form and would thus introduce very little additional dialogue. Hooper also confirmed that the film would not be shot in 3D, expressing his opinion that it would not enhance the emotional narrative of the film and would distract audiences from the storytelling.
Following this announcement, reports surfaced in the press that Sacha Baron Cohen had begun talks to join the the cast as Thénardier and that Aaron Tveit had been cast as Enjolras.bLater that month, the press officially confirmed Tveit's casting as Enjolras. Later, Colm Wilkinson and Frances Ruffelle (the original Valjean and Éponine, respectively, in the West End and Broadway productions) had cameos in the film, with Wilkinson playing the Bishop of Digne and Ruffelle playing a prostitute. George Blagden was also cast, as Grantaire. In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Front Row, Tom Hooper revealed that Claude-Michel Schönberg will be composing one new song and additional music. The director also expanded on the performers singing live on set, which he felt would eliminate the need to recapture "locked" performances and allow more creative freedom. More details of this were confirmed by Eddie Redmayne in an interview. He stated that the cast would sing to piano tracks (via earpiece) and that the orchestra would be added in post-production.
In February 2012, casting auditions involving extras for the film took place at the University of Portsmouth and Chatham Maritime in Chatham. Several days later, Mackintosh officially confirmed that Bonham Carter would play Madame Thénardier. He also announced that the title of the newly created song for the film is "Suddenly" and that it "beautifully explains what happens when Valjean takes Cosette from the inn and looks after her." At the end of the month, The Sun reported that the long-rumoured Baron Cohen had been cast in the role of Monsieur Thénardier.
The cast began rehearsals in January 2012, with principal photography due to begin in March. The press officially confirmed Baron Cohen's casting during the latter month. No table read took place before filming.
Filming
Tom Hooper directing the second unit of Les Misérables on location in Winchester in April 2012.
With a production budget of $61 million, principal photography of the film began on 8 March 2012 in Gourdon, in France. Filming locations also included Winchester College, Winchester Cathedral Close, Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth, Oxford, St Mary the Virgin Church in Ewelme, South Oxfordshire and Pinewood Studios in England. In April 2012, a replica of the Elephant of the Bastille was constructed in Greenwich. In the novel, Gavroche lives in the decaying monument. Footage of Anne Hathaway singing "I Dreamed a Dream", a song from the musical, was shown at CinemaCon on 26 April 2012. On 5 June 2012, Russell Crowe confirmed on Twitter that he had finished filming. He was later followed by Samantha Barks, confirming that all of her scenes had too been completed. On 23 June 2012, Hugh Jackman confirmed that all filming had been completed. Some late filming was carried out in Bath, Somerset, in October 2012 where stunt shots for Javert's suicide scene had to be reshot due to an error found with this footage during post-production. Bath was not the original filming location for this scene, but the late footage was captured at Pulteney Weir, which is unmistakable in the film.
Post-production
The film's vocals were recorded live on set using live piano accompaniments played through earpieces as a guide, with the orchestral accompaniment recorded in post-production, rather than the traditional method where the film's musical soundtracks are usually pre-recorded and played back on set to which actors lip-sync. Production sound mixer Simon Hayes used 50 DPA 4071 lavalier microphones to record the vocals. Hooper explained his choice:
" I just felt ultimately, it was a more natural way of doing it. You know, when actors do dialogue, they have freedom in time, they have freedom in pacing. They can stop for a moment, they can speed up. I simply wanted to give the actors the normal freedoms that they would have. If they need a bit for an emotion or a feeling to form in the eyes before they sing, I can take that time. If they cry, they can cry through a song. When you’re doing it to playback, to the millisecond you have to copy what you do. You have no freedom in the moment – and acting is the illusion of being free in the moment.”
Although this unique live recording method has been stated as "a world's first" by the creative team, several film musicals have used this method before, including early talkies, as lip-syncing wasn't perfected, the 1975 20th Century Fox film At Long Last Love and more recently in the 1995 adaptation of The Fantasticks,in the 2001 film version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and in the 2007 film Across the Universe with songs by The Beatles. On 27 August 2012, it was announced that recording sessions for Les Misérables would begin in London on 10 October and featured a 70-piece orchestra. It was also announced that composer Claude-Michel Schönberg was working on writing additional music to underscore the film. On 9 September 2012, Universal Studios executives were granted a viewing of the rough cut of the film without the orchestra. The cut was greeted with "extreme excitement," and Russell Crowe tweeted that he received many excited emails.
Marketing
On 30 May 2012, the film's first teaser trailer debuted online, and later in theatres with Snow White and the Huntsman.[85]
On 20 September 2012, an extended first look was released on the film's official Facebook page. This short introduces and explains Hooper's method of recording vocals live on set, and compares it to the traditional method of pre-recording the vocals in a studio months in advance. Hugh Jackman stated that filming in this way allows him more creative freedom with the material and that he "only has to worry about acting it." Both Hooper and the actors believe that this choice of production method will make the film feel much more emotional, raw, and real. The actors praised Hooper for his method and provide brief interviews throughout the video. Hooper mentions, "I thought it was an amazing opportunity to do something genuinely groundbreaking."Bits of Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, and Samantha Barks singing were received very positively, especially the teaser trailer's presentation of "I Dreamed a Dream" by Hathaway.
On 24 September 2012, a new poster for the film was released on the film's official Facebook page. The poster featured young Cosette, played by Isabelle Allen. Posters featuring Jean Valjean, Javert, Fantine, and Cosette were later released on 12 October, with further posters of Thénardiers and Marius released on 1 November.
Release
Les Misérables was originally going to be released on 7 December 2012 before it was moved to 14 December. However, on 18 September 2012, the film's release date was moved again to 25 December 2012, so as not to conflict with the opening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which opened on 14 December. Because of this, it opened alongside Django Unchained. Release date for the United Kingdom was 11 January 2013.
On 23 November 2012, Les Misérables was screened for the first time at the Lincoln Center in New York City, which received a standing ovation from the crowd. This was followed by a screening the next day in Los Angeles, which also received positive reviews.
Les Misérables premiered on 5 December at the Empire, Leicester Square in London.Red carpet footage was screened live online in an event hosted by Michael Ball, the original Marius of the West End. The film was released in select IMAX theatres in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Montreal the same day as its domestic theatrical release on 25 December 2012. Les Misérables was later released in international IMAX theatres, beginning on 10 January 2013.
Home media
The film is confirmed for a 22 March 2013 home release on DVD, Blu-ray, and VOD. The DVD will contain three featurettes-The Stars of Les Miserables, Creating the Perfect Paris, and The Original Masterwork: Victor Hugo's Les Miserables-along with an audio commentary from director Tom Hooper. The Blu-ray contains all DVD features including four additional featurettes-Les Miserables Singing Live, Battle at the Barricade, The West End Connection, and Les Miserables On Location.
Box office
As of 19 February 2013, Les Misérables earned $145,764,425 in North America and $233,300,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $379,064,425. In North America, Les Misérables opened on 25 December 2012 in 2,808 theatres placing first at the box office with $18.1 million. This amount broke the record for the highest opening day gross for a musical film, previously held by High School Musical 3: Senior Year, and was also the second highest opening day gross for a film released on Christmas Day. It earned $27.3 million in its opening weekend, placing third behind Django Unchained and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
The film was released in the United Kingdom on 11 January 2013 and earned £8.1 ($13.1) million in its opening weekend, making it the largest opening weekend for a musical film, as well as Working Title.
Critical response
Les Misérables has received mostly favourable reviews; the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes sampled 212 reviews and judged 70% of them to be positive. On Metacritic, the film achieved an average score of 63 out of 100 based on 40 reviews, signifying "generally favourable reviews".
Robbie Collin of the Daily Telegraph gave the film five stars, saying: "Les Misérables is a blockbuster, and the special effects are emotional: explosions of grief; fireballs of romance; million-buck conflagrations of heartbreak. Accordingly, you should see it in its opening week, on a gigantic screen, with a fanatical crowd." The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw concurred: "Even as a non-believer in this kind of "sung-through" musical, I was battered into submission by this mesmeric and sometimes compelling film ...". Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times gave a positive review, saying that the film "is a clutch player that delivers an emotional wallop when it counts. You can walk into the theater as an agnostic, but you may just leave singing with the choir."Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said, "Besides being a feast for the eyes and ears, Les Misérables overflows with humor, heartbreak, rousing action and ravishing romance. Damn the imperfections, it's perfectly marvelous.
Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter said, "As the enduring success of this property has shown, there are large, emotionally susceptible segments of the population ready to swallow this sort of thing, but that doesn't mean it's good."Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said that "[Director Tom] Hooper can be very good with actors. But his inability to leave any lily ungilded—to direct a scene without tilting or hurtling or throwing the camera around—is bludgeoning and deadly. By the grand finale, when tout le monde is waving the French tricolor in victory, you may instead be raising the white flag in exhausted defeat."Justin Chang of Variety had mixed feelings for the film, saying that it "will more than satisfy the show's legions of fans." Chang praised the performances of Jackman, Hathaway, Barks, Tveit and Seyfried (i.e., every leading cast member except Crowe) but said that the film's editing "seems reluctant to slow down and let the viewer simply take in the performances."
Regardless of the reviewer's overall opinion of the film, many of the specific performances were cited for acclaim, particularly that of Anne Hathaway. Hathaway's performance of ballad "I Dreamed a Dream" was met with praise, with many comparing its showstopper-like quality to Jennifer Hudson's Oscar-winning performance of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from the film Dreamgirls. Christopher Orr from The Atlantic wrote that "Hathaway gives it everything she has, beginning in quiet sorrow before building to a woebegone climax: she gasps, she weeps, she coughs. If you are blown away by the scene—as many will be; it will almost certainly earn Hathaway her first Oscar—this may be the film for you."Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post writes that "The centerpiece of a movie composed entirely of centerpieces belongs to Anne Hathaway, who as the tragic heroine Fantine sings another of the memorable numbers". Joy Tipping from Dallas Morning News described her performance as "angelic". Claudia Puig from USA Today describes her as "superb as the tragic Fantine". Travers felt that "A dynamite Hathaway shatters every heart when she sings how 'life has killed the dream I dreamed.' Her volcanic performance has Oscar written all over it."Lou Lumenick from the New York Post has said that the film is "worth seeing for Hathaway alone".She is widely considered to be the frontrunner for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Eddie Redmayne has also received considerable praise for his performance with Bloomberg News saying that "Eddie Redmayne—most recently seen as the eager young production assistant in My Week with Marilyn—delivers by far the most moving and memorable performance in the film as the young firebrand Marius, who, along with his fellow students, is caught up in France's political upheavals in the 19th century."
Samantha Barks also received praise for her portrayal of Éponine, with Digital Journal saying: "Samantha Barks plays Éponine with such grace, sweetness, and sadness that it is hard to imagine anyone else in the role", while Claudia Puig of USA Today calls her "heartbreakingly soulful", Richard Roeper of The Chicago Sun-Times describes her performance as "star-making", and Roger Friedman of Showbiz411.com says she "just about steals the film".
Hugh Jackman's performance as Jean Valjean has also been critically acclaimed. Wesley Morris of BostonGlobe.com says, "the charisma’s been stripped to the bone, and it’s a thrilling confirmation of the other kind of star Jackman is". Lisa Kennedy of denverpost.com describes Jackman's performance as "bringing depth to Valjean's tale of offence and grace, of taking responsibility for a child and then letting go," and also says his rendition of "Bring Him Home" has "emotional heft".
Amanda Seyfried has also been praised for her lovable but short performance as Cosette, PasteMagazine.com says "Amanda Seyfried is excellent as the young, idealist loving girl who's life changes dramatically in the 1832 June uprising in Paris", ListFilm says "out of her comes a pretty voice, which is lent urgency by the decision to have the actors sing live on set rather than lip-sync to studio recordings", ViewLondon says she "held her own in a nice way, even if she's largely outsung by her co-stars", Express says she "provides the picture it's romantic heart", and ReelzChannel called her a stand-out performance.
On 10 January 2013, it was announced that the film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including the Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role for Jackman, and Best Supporting Actress for Hathaway. The winners will be announced on 24 February.
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