When I saw it for the first time in 1991, I got a program with a little logo in the back (the Cosette drawing) that said “She’ll be coming to the cinema in 1992!” So they’ve certainly thought about it.
I was stunned when my girlfriend said they’ve never made a movie version of Les Miz! I think it would be a modest hit, with the rousing music and classic themes.
Les Mis The Movie would have a decent size built-in audience, certainly. Good movie musicals can be made. I would still worry about it, though. The problem with Hollywood doing musicals is that they think singing is secondary. You can kind of get away with that in a Kander and Ebb show, where the songs aren’t that vocally demanding. Les Mis is vocally demanding. If it’s not sung well, it sounds like crap.
The role of Eponine was created for stunt casting and the show has survived many stunt castings of that particular role. I suspect that Pink would make a great Eponine. Beyonce, not so much. I might have to kneecap Renee Zellwegger if she expressed any interest in the part.
Marius was not created for stunt casting, no matter how adorable the actor. Ricky Martin has already proved unworthy. I don’t want to see Justin Timberlake’s take on it. (Even less do I want to hear it.)
Gerard Butler should stay away, far, far away from any role. Ditto Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. I don’t care what any director told them about their singing ability or that they’ve been taking voices lessons for three whole months. They can’t cut it. (I am willing to entertain the idea of Hugh Jackman. Enjolras, perhaps?)
Mackintosh, Boublil, and Schonberg should insist on audition and casting approval before surrendering any rights.
You can probably tell, I’m very over-protective of this show. (And I haven’t even started in on my requirements for the director, set designer, and cinematographer.)
It was. Not a musical version, though. And it completely dropped Eponine. I was very disappointed.
The recent Phantom of the Opera film had, I thought, excellent singers in all the major roles EXCEPT, ironically, the Phantom himself. Emmy Rossum was stunning as Christine. I could totally see her as Cosette.
A Les Miz movie as good as the recent Phantom movie is one I would happily pay $10 to see and then buy the DVD of.
I’ve never seen Phantom because I always heard it was cliched and cheesy, and I hate Cats (which is also Andrew Lloyd Weber, right?) I also hate Joel Schumacher from the mockery he made of his two Batman movies, but Gerard Butler was pretty rad in 300, and Emmy Rossum is hot. Is the movie worth seeing? Would I like it, d’ya think? Like I said, I’m new to considering myself a fan of musicals, but I’ve seen Les Miz, Rent (three times), Wicked, and Lion King live and loved them all, plus love the movies of Chicago, Little Shop of Horrors, and Singin’ In the Rain. Hate Cats, hate The Fantasticks.
I enjoyed Phantom the movie, although it will never be my favorite show.
I was disappointed in Emmy Rossum’s singing, although that’s not her fault. She had been built up a lot in the pre-release press, so I expected her to be wonderful even compared to stage Christines. She just wasn’t. Her voice was pretty and she used it reasonably well, but she was nowhere near as solid as Claire Moore, or Rebecca Caine, or even Sarah Brightman (of whom I am not a huge fan). Still, I have no doubt Rossum was orders of magnitude better than most screen performers who auditioned.*
Christine and Cosette are vocally very similar. Someone who’d played one could certainly play the other.
Minnie Driver got dubbed. (And is soon to be starring in the remake of Singing in the Rain. I kid!)
Patrick Wilson did as well as anyone could with Raoul. 
He’s a Broadway boy (Oklahoma! Full Monty) and so it was to be expected.
The less said about Gerard Butler the better. Yeesh.
*There are some excellent screen musicals where the casting was obviously not based on singing alone. I think Madonna did an admirable job in Evita. But when a character is supposed to have a magnificent operatic voice, I think it’s fair to judge the actor on the quality of her vocal performance.
Big Bad Voodoo Lou, the Phantom movie is the sort of movie that one associates with swashbuckling, poufy shirts on men, and women with their hand glued to their forehead (alas!) It had underground rivers and swordfights and trapdoors and galloping horses. If that’s your bag, you’ll enjoy it. If you hate those kinds of movies, then it’s precisely the kind of movie you hate. With singing.
I just had a thought. What if Audra McDonald could be convinced to play Fantine in a Les Mis movie?
Would she do it?
I don’t think that was the same thing, though. That was A movie of “Les Mis”, but not the musical “Les Mis”. Or at least that’s what I always assumed since it didn’t seem to be in any way related to the musical version - particularly with the missing characters (Eponine, as you mentioned, and since when did Marius lead the rebellion?).
I love Les Mis… what a powerful musical. I’ve seen it on Broadway and in Washington DC. Both shows were amazing! In high school we sang a compilation of the score in choir for a concert and since I first heard the songs I loved it.
Actually, when I daydream at work, Scrubs-style, I usually imagine myself amid all those elements. Melodrama is A-OK with me!