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The international trailer for Universal‘s Les Misérables has hit the Web. This more comprehensive look at the film shows just about every castmember singing including Russell Crowe as Javert. In another first, it offers a glimpse — and an earful — of the musical’s set-piece anthems “One Day More” and “Do You Hear The People Sing?” I’ve also confirmed that tickets can be pre-booked from December 1 for the January 11 release in the UK. The film opens in North America on December 25.
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This is a travesty. The quality of the voices are the first most important aspect to a musical. This movie has rejected that notion and made these shrill, thin voices worse by recording them on locations with bad acoustics. They should have revoiced everyone with proper singers.
And now you can clearly see why Javert has been left out for so long.
I agree 100%! I love Les Mis but, after seeing this preview, I am certain I will not going see the film, which is a great disappointment. Some of Hollywood’s best classic musicals were dubbed, The King and I, West Side Story and My Fair Lady. All great films which have withstood the test of time and all brilliantly dubbed. Rather than cast any of the many stage actors who made Les Mis the great success that it is, they cast big “stars” whose singing voices should not be heard in any musical. Maybe someday Les Mis will be filmed correctly, with proper attention to the music. The films of Phantom of the Opera and Sweeney Todd were similarly spoiled with poor singing. Only Chicago managed to get away with the actors successfully doing their own singing, a real rarity. But that was a totally different style of singing, brilliant directing and tremendous good luck!
Disappointing to hear the music sung so thinly by Crowe, Seyfried, etc. But no matter. This theater nerd will be there on opening weekend.
I loved the trailer. All the singing, even by Broadway vet Jackman, sounded different (more raw, more real) than you get in musical theater but I do believe when we see the film it will all come together. I applaud Hooper’s idea to have the actors sing live and all these actors have the talent to sell the music along with their performances. The look of the movie is fantastic and I think it has the chance to be Epic!
Wow! The film version will always be different from the stage version- which is a good thing. This is a great trailer! I actually like the singing voices, besides Russell Crowe.
Hugh Jackman can sing, right? The guy’s starred in Broadway musicals. So why is Russel Crowe singing in this trailer and Jackman is not? Ugh.
Jackman does sing in the trailer. “One day more… another day another destiny…” Watch it again.
Only Bret Rattner was more wrong for this job than Tom Hooper. The stage productions mounted in recent memory are 50 x’s more grande than this and Russell Crowe sounds like my dad at church trying to hide under others. For me, Seyfried is the strongest sounding of all of them and she makes a lovely Cosette but she’s from theater and was a no-brainer. This is just disappointing on so many levels. *Sigh.
I don’t find the singing inappropriate at all… this is film, sung live [often outdoors] and dramatically, by fine actors… it’s not a stage performance sung to the audience by musical theater performers for the umpteenth time.
People should try to open their minds to what Hooper and his cast are bringing to the film, which is it’s own medium. If you just want another stage performance or old style musical films which used canned songs, often dubbed … so be it, they’re out there to find. The criticisms remind me of what readers complain about when their favorites are translated to stage or screen “But it’s not word for word… they left out my favorite scene [or plot line]“
I am stunned at all the hate about the singing and, unbelievably, the grandiosity?! Are we watching the same trailer?? Was the shot of the convicts pulling in the ship not grand enough? Or the giant barricade? Or the soldiers and students fighting? Or the tavern song? I swear, there must be some plants from rival studios on this board trying to create negative buzz, because this trailer was fantastic.
As for the singing, first of all, Hugh Jackman, Samantha Barks, and Aaron Tveit are all world class Broadway singers who can belt with the best of them. Secondly, Anne Hathaway and Eddie Redmayne clearly demonstrate in this trailer that they are also powerful, first-rate singers. Yes, Amanda Seyfred has a thin voice, but it doesn’t bother me because it fits the character. Crowe, I’ll grant you, seems to be the weak link among the singers, but he’s not terrible – and certainly, we’ve all heard far worse from recent movie musicals, especially Phantom of the Opera.
Personally, I think this looks terrific and I can’t wait to see it. This, and The Hobbit, are my most anticipated movies of December.
I agree with MimiB – also, the filmmakers need to attract the numberless masses to the movie theater. It needs to be accessible to and enjoyable by everyone, not just theater nerds. You’ve already seen it.
Honestly, if I didn’t think it was going to be different than a stage performance, I wouldn’t bother to go. I like film, and I want it to be a film, not a recorded theater performance. As it is, I’m excited about it.
I know it’s fashionable to rag on Crowe, but his voice, while it may not be just like what you heard in the theater, is perfectly fine for his character. He had to audition, he had to train, and if the filmmakers didn’t think his voice was right for the role, they would have hired someone else.
As Mimi said, this is film, not stage, and you won’t have musical/operatic singers booming out their voices to the back row. These actors are singing live, singing in the moment and acting while they are singing. It will be more raw, more real, and I am very much looking forward to that.
Crowe actually sounded great to me and appropriate to the role of Javert in the tiny snippet we heard. I actually though Seyfried sounded a bit thin but I know she has a good voice and in the movie she’ll be just fine. Jackman did sing in this trailer so I’m not sure where Wolverine on Ice is coming from.
You all have to remember this is a 2 1/2 minute trailer stitched together from a 2 1/2 hour film. All will come together in the movie quite beautifully, you have my word on it.
See it on the big screen with full cinema sound and then make your mind up. Theatre is theatre; movies are movies — different media and need to be seen and heard for what they are. Sometimes they both work (MY FAIR LADY, WEST SIDE STORY) sometimes they don’t (PHANTOM OF THE OPERA)but stage and screen are different audience experiences and should be appreciated as such.
The overall look of this film is fantastic and that is what counts. The setting is not limited by the stage size.Film audiences want to see a film not a filmed stage production. And there is real power in the acting ,which draws in an audience. The notion that Crowe hasn’t done his very best here is nonsense, Crowe is one of the best actors working today.What I see is that Hooper has made a fine movie of this material and maybe that is what is galling to the complainers.
this adds to crowes growing list of terrible performances ie the dire a good year, the old man section of a beautiful mind a travesty, then robin hood dreadful and dour, and now this the singing plank he hasnt given a decent performance since master and commander it was damned shame he landed this role
A producer reported about a year ago when Crowe was cast what happened. He said that Paul Bettany, who auditioned for the role, had a much better and stronger voice but that he lacked the the big name that Crowe has. Cameron Macintosh thought Crowe was “good enough” and Universal was heavily pressed by Crowe to give him the part. Hooper really wanted Bettany but he needed a big name cast to sell a musical to the main stream.
Sorry, I think that’s BS and it’s not at all what Mackintosh says. I’m sure Crowe pursued the movie hard, Jackman has said he pursued this movie harder than anything he’s ever done. Crowe had to audition just as everyone else did and I don’t think they would have hired him if he was just ‘good enough’.
Or maybe Hooper saw Bettany in ‘The Tourist’, in which the actor played an Inspector Javert-type insipidly, and Hooper was no longer thrilled by the possibility of casting Bettany? He’s a talented actor (proven in ‘A Knight’s Tale’, ‘A Beautiful Mind’, ‘Master and Commander’, ‘Dogville’ and ‘Margin Call’), but he’s also given some pretty lousy performances in bigger films like ‘Firewall’ and ‘The Da Vinci Code’. On the one hand, the guy probably hasn’t been given the roles he deserves. On the other, he often doesn’t make the most out of some of his bigger opportunities (‘The Da Vinci Code’ is terrible, but his role is one of the better ones in the film, but Bettany doesn’t give it any distinction or nuance).
The trailer is poorly edited. The U.S. version is much more polished, but this trailer give everyone more insight to the different characters. LM above is correct. Jackman, Barks, Tveit are theatre trained. As well as Seyfreid and Hathaway. And most of the other parts are theatre people as well. Crowe wasn’t the best casting. The acting will be fine, but perhaps the singing not up to the rest. I would have preffered Bettany, but it is what it is. It was be fine. It will be different from the stage show and that is fine to. It is a completely different medium and you don’t have to shout to the back of the theatre to get your point across. Softer smalled subtelties come across on screen that don’t on stage. Could you imagine how ridiculous it would be for Fantine to be bellowing “tell Cosette I love her and I’ll see her when I waaaaaaaake” on screen like she does on stage. That would be a joke.
Really, as for Russell Crowe’s singing in the trailer, consider the song itself. “One Day More” is a showy piece for several of the characters (it was the finale of Act I in the stage version) but Javert’s part of the song tends to be a little flat and not so interesting.
I am concerned and disappointed. I will see the movie…probably a couple of times.
Unfortunately this is not going to be the Les Miserables musical we all know. I believe it is instead an acted form that showcases some of the songs from the musical. I was concerned when I heard that is would be just over 2 hours. The musical (in its complete form) is 3hrs and 15 minutes. Most productions over the last 6-8 years have it down to around 2hrs and 50 minutes. I knew this cutting of the film would be inevitable. It seems now that they have thrown in substantial portions of non-musical reenactment. This only leaves more music out. I want to be positive but I am very concerned.
You are hearing acting thru music. ALL of the cast have strong musical backgrounds (yes, even Crowe) and are probably some of the best theatrical singers around. Sometimes emotion is – deliberately – not melodic. Hooper is going for honest emotion v how melodic do you feel when you’re frustrated, or angry, or depressed. If they belted out their songs (a la Broadway), the feeling on screen would come across as fake.
Suzanne, I totally agree. While crowe and seyfried may be the weaker of this cast, this cast’s musical and acting talents are incredible – so, to be the weakest in this group, is not weak at all!
Daniel – I think you will be surprised at the approach and quality of this film. While I wish it were longer, Les Mis on Broadway is 2 1/4 hours, not 3 1/2 .
Looks absolutely TERRIBLE. It looks like Tom Hooper didn’t actually FRAME a SINGLE shot, but instead decided to steadi-cam the entire thing and swing the camera around and have every shot be a dutch angle – that is the LAZIEST cop-out a director can make, and it makes for a ridiculous visual experience. The CGI shot above the ship is ridiculous. Crowe sounds like a drunk in a bar. Seyfried sounds awful. The scale of the film looks SMALL and like it was all shot on a single set with three stagings. What a travesty. They should have let Alan Parker direct this back when he was going to (he had legal troubles that prevented him from seeing it through). Parker is the ONLY director who could have made a masterpiece out of this musical. With “Evita”, “Pink Floyd The Wall”, etc., the man is a genius. Hooper looks like he’s made a TV MOVIE out of this thing – and this VERITE’ singing thing was an AWFUL choice. These songs are ICONIC – you don’t MESS with that by having weak, method-style singing, when the damn thing is all in the melody. As a fan of this musical, I’m so disappointed. It’s such a shame. Because they won’t be making another version of the musical as a film, probably ever. I’m sure it will make some money, because of the stars and popularity of the show – but most people have no idea if a film is badly directed or not – and this film looks as if Hooper didn’t direct it at all. It looks like he handed his crew some cameras on ropes and told them to just run around everybody. UGH!!
This is the best trailer I have seen in a long time. MUCH better than the American version!!
It amazes me that so many people want this perfect sound for their characters in this and other musicals. This film above all, can and does play off of the rougher vocals. Hey, it’s a time of impoverished people, that lends itself perfectly to non-dubbed “perfect sounding” voices. As for the comments about My Fair Lady and The King and I being dubbed, that was how it was done back then. I saw Yule Brenner on Broadway in the late 70s and he was not dubbed and it was FANTASTIC! If you don’t want to go, fine, more seats for those of us that do. But making it sound like it’s a waste is just pure bunk. I’ve been a fan of Crowe’s singing since his band was called 30 Odd Foot of Grunt (having seen them perform live on more than one occasion) and I am excited to see him do more than rock and feel he is an excellent choice. Crowe always lets his heart out in whatever he sings and that makes him perfect for this role!!
Well I saw the movie last night in a screening. It would be a great movie if Crowe was not in it, he’s just terrible. Jackman is not amazing, but he’s acceptable. Russell has no chemistry with Jackman in the movie, he’s as stiff as a board, emotionless, and his songs make you cringe- yes, he ruins the movie. I was shocked to learn he fronted a band and even went to youtube to check it out- he’s not that bad as a band singer- so I don’t know what went wrong here, but whoever hired him should get the boot! It’s still worth checking out, but Crowe keeps it from being a truly great film.
Well, the family just got back from seeing Les Mis. I have seen the play twice in London, twice in NYC and once in L.A. It is a classic amongst classics. Where you will here the backlash is that this was all sang live and not dubbed. It was good to see Colm Wilkenson as the priest and I wish he could have sang more. Acting wise, all the charecters were really good except Russell Crowe. He does deserve a razzie for this film. He may have fronted a rock band, however he cannot come close to Les Mis songs. It is so crige worthy when he sings. Also, to have really no passion in his role and singing was missing. Jackman, stand up job! Hathaway, beleiveable hard life role and actually sang with passion so the other items could be looked over.
You have to go into the movie knowing that this is not going to the the big booming voices you are used to and get into an old favorite with pretty good acting and a 3 hour sitdown. Don’t get the big gulp soda….LOL
he almost riuned it crowe was wooden unemotional didnt understand javert and he was up against power house emoting from jackman and hathaway the director should have cut his losses and recast he was also a lousy robin hood ,