New Images from Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables
A set of new images from Tom Hooper’s adaptation of Les Misérables has been released, USA Today reveals. In this version of the story, as Empire reports, the entire script is sung. The director of The King’s Speech is adapting the stage musical version of the classic French tale, which follows the redemption of ex-convict Jean Valjean (played by Hugh Jackman) who breaks his parole and assumes a new identity as a prosperous factory owner and mayor of a French town. Pursued by the obsessive policeman Javert (played by Russell Crowe), Valjean pledges his life to protecting the daughter (Cosette – played as a child by Isabelle Allen and as an adult by Amanda Seyfried) of one of his workers, Fantine (played by Anne Hathaway) who – after a terrible life of prostitution to try and provide for her daughter – is dying of illness. Valjean must keep his promise whilst evading capture from Valjean.
Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter are well cast as Cosette’s guardians, the Thénardiers, as they will offer a delicious hilarity to their roles as the obnoxious inn owners (and will surely give a great performance of the song ‘Master of the House’ – with neither of them being strangers to musicals, having both already starred in Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd). Eddie Redmayne is playing the student Marius, and Samantha Barks will play the coveted role of the tragically infatuated Éponine Thénardier.
Judging by his efforts with The King’s Speech, Hooper will surely treat the story with the respect it deserves whilst also offering a deeply emotionally engaging story that we can relate to. With a fantastic cast to back up the project, this is a project that fans of the stage musical will definitely be anticipating.
The film is due for release on January 11th, 2013.
News source – Empire, USA Today
Image sources – USA Today