Eddie Redmayne and Amanda Seyfried both make appearances as Marius and Cosette. If you're unfamiliar with the 26 year-old stage musical or Victor Hugo's
150 year-old novel, then you won't be terribly concerned with
individual characters. You're more likely to be swept up in the
straightforward drama of Hathaway's singing and the procession of
imagery that conveys the story's scale, the amount of human misery
involved, and the Awards Season-ready prestige that you can pretty much
smell on Les Miserables
The trailer debuted today at Bing, so a big tip of the hat in that direction.
Jackman's a proven musical commodity onstage, as is Samantha Barks, who has previously played the crucial role of Eponine, but Hathaway, Redmayne, and Seyfried are bigger gambles. Based on this trailer alone, I'm curious what fans of the musical think of Hathaway, as it seems to me she does a damn fine job. Not seen in the trailer but definitely popping up in the film are Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, both of whom sang with gusto in Tim Burton's take on Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
After winning Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture with his last feature, Tom Hooper probably had something close to carte blanche in choosing his next project. His follow-up to The King's Speech is nothing if not ambitious, and it looks like his experience with period drama on the fantastic HBO miniseries John Adams doubtless came in handy on this attempt to bring the musical to screens everywhere.
Les Miserables is scheduled to hit theaters on December 14th, the very same day as Peter Jackson's 3D half-movie The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey.
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