Tom Hooper's 'Les Misérables' looks absolutely, ridiculously AMAZING! Stupendous times ten! Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway & Amanda Seyfried musical opens at Christmas, and seems to be a veritable license to print money; Baz Luhrmannn's 'The Great Gatsby' opening is pushed back to May 2013; @LesMiserables

OfficialRegalMovies video: Les Misérables, starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried, and is directed by Oscar-winner Tom Hooper (The King's Speech). Opens at Christmas. Uploaded September 20, 2012. http://youtu.be/wwgQjfg0hZw

Stupendous times ten! Tom Hooper's 'Les Misérables' looks absolutely, ridiculously AMAZING! Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway & Amanda Seyfried musical opens at Christmas, and seems to be a veritable license to print money; Baz Luhrmannn's 'The Great Gatsby' opening is pushed back to May 2013; @LesMiserables

LesMiserablesFilm video: Les Misérables (teaser) Uploaded May 31, 2012.
http://youtu.be/2TRU1vt8o7o

Frankly, after looking at how rapturous Les Misérables looks, as much as I love Baz Luhrmannn's genius and inventiveness and was looking forward to seeing his production of The Great Gatsby at Christmas, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and the always-amazing Carey Mulligan, now that word has come this morning -below- that the film has been moved to May 10th, I can't help but wonder what Loopper would've done with Fitzgerald's Gatsby.

I say this after having seen the Gatsby teasers online and then the most recent trailer for it a few weeks back, something I meant to mention here in this space.
Seriously, when I actually heard the rap music at the beginning of a film about Long Island in the 1920's, I positively cringed. 
Cringed!

Can there be no end in sight to this trend of forcing inappropriate popular music on a subject just because you can get permission to use a song or the singer is a friend?


http://youtu.be/rARN6agiW7o

Unfortunately, by the fifth time I watched it, I got the very strong sense that characterization and plot development would take a back-seat to over-the-top scenes of opulence, which almost every good director can do with a large enough budget.
By the time I saw the trailer for the sixth time, a week after seeing it for the first time, I felt like I not only didn't want to see the film, I didn't want to even see another film at a multiplex that was right next to it.

Being creative and magical with characters, giving movie-goers insight into their inner struggles or personality development, that's the thing I look for.
It's what Luhrmann did so well with the ridiculously-talented Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge, in that despite all the visual and musical flourishes, her character just jumps out at you and makes you want to care about her.

No matter what else you want to convey to an audience, that's especially got to be the case in a film based on a book I've read dozens of times.
Not just the most-American novel of the past 100 years, the best one.

It seems that tens of thousands of other film fans around the world who have seen the Gatsby
trailer have come to the same conclusion regarding the rap music, since it's typically the first thing that comes up in a conversation or email: How could they?
As presently constructed, based on the outlines we've seen thru teasers and trailers, I have serious doubts about the film's ability to draw-in movie-goers over age 35.

TheWrap

'The Great Gatsby' Release Date Moved to May 2013

By Tim Kenneally & Brent Lang

Published: September 20, 2012 @ 9:59 am

"The Great Gatsby" will kick off the summer season for Warner Bros. on May 10, 2013, the studio said Friday.

The Baz Luhrmann-directed film will be released internationally the following week.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/great-gatsby-release-date-moved-may-2013-57266 
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http://www.lesmiserablesfilm.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/LesMiserablesFilm

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/

No chemistry? Oh, so it wasn't just me who noticed? Academy president Tom Sherak tells TheWrap: Franco and Hathaway Had 'No Connection'

Oh, so it wasn't just me who noticed how contrived the relationship between James Franco and Anne Hathaway seemed during Sunday's 83rd Annual Academy Awards?

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TheWrap
Academy Chief Sherak: Franco and Hathaway Had 'No Connection'
By Daniel Frankel
Published: March 03, 2011 @ 5:22 pm

Pelted by critics of the 83rd Annual Academy Awards telecast over the last three days, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Tom Sherak quipped to TheWrap Thursday that he remains in a "bunker."

"I'll climb out as soon as I hear Winston Churchill say it's OK," he added, conceding that the host pairing of James Franco and Anne Hathaway wasn't as dynamic as hoped, but defending the overall ratings performance of the ABC telecast, which drew an average of 38 million viewers.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.thewrap.com/awards/article/sherak-his-bunker-there-was-no-connection-between-oscar-hosts-25235

*All screenshots above and below from the 83rd Annual Academy Awards of February 27, 2011 by South Beach Hoosier.


Oh, I get it.
Anne Hathaway in tails and James Franco in drag, all so he can make a Charlie Sheen joke. But really, do you think that people watching the Academy Awards show LIVE in Germany or Eastern Europe when it was 4:15 a.m. or so found it so damn hysterical?
Me, I've got to think they just groaned.
Like I did here in Anytown U.S.A., Hallandale Beach, Florida
For whom it was intended...

Well, at least someone didn't needlessly mention Sarah Palin just to make her a liberal punchline and show how "edgy" they are!

Gothamist: James Franco Says "F*** The Yale Daily News"
http://gothamist.com/2011/03/04/james_franco_says_f_the_yale_daily.php

The whole show reminded me of the very awkward relationships created when people are thrown together like a salad during long car rides from IU to Fort Lauderdale or Daytona Beach during Spring Break, tales related to me by friends once we were all back in cold Bloomington.

I once even personally experienced that clash of personalities on such a drive down here.
I was ready to jump out of the car somewhere between Chatanooga and Atlanta, probably near Franklin, home of Paramore, home of some very steep mountains on I-65, and those runaway truck pits on the side of the road are no laughing matter when it's raining hard.

And the drama didn't end once the four of us actually got here, either, when we were staying at the Sheraton Yankee Trader -and that fabulous swimming pool of theirs that was such a great people-watching magnet.

One of the girls on the trip down just "vanished" in Fort Lauderdale, so we had to call her parents up in Fort Wayne and then get the Fort Lauderdale police involved once her folks said they hadn't heard anything from her.

Shocker -she met some guy from some other school who was also visiting, and and she just decided to spend all her time with him and his friends -without telling us.

In comparison, at least nobody had to call the LAPD for either Anne and James once James seemed to check-out mentally and just sleepwalked his way thru much of the show.

So much for the great idea of having one of the hosts be someone who was nominated for an Academy Award!



Great Cate! Every inch a movie star: Cate Blanchett.
She is transcendent in every film she does.

Her dress was from Givenchy Couture, and was NOT so keenly received by the fashionistas:
http://www.vogue.fr/mode/look-du-jour/articles/cate-blanchett-en-givenchy-couture/6999


Bosom pals from Down Under with talent-to-spare: Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. Nicole is wearing Dior Couture.

Mr. Sherak, the answer to who should be hosting the Academy Awards show if they are not nominated for an award themselves is obvious.
It's right in front of you: Jackman & Kidman.

The two of them have more natural (and honed) singing and dancing talent than almost any two other actors you could've found in the Kodak Theater, and everyone knows it, too.
And everyone also knows what great friends they are, too, and that enthusiasm and synergy will surely show up in their performance as well.
Case closed.

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See also:

Official website of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: http://www.oscars.org/

Transcript of Live Chat: After the Oscars, with David Denby
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/ask/2011/02/david-denby-oscars.html

TheWrap online: http://www.thewrap.com/

TheWrap's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/thewrapnews