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/

New film trailer for Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe & Cate Blanchett; Matthew Macfadyen & Keeley Hawes

Below, the TV commercial that'll be running during the
Super Bowl 44 telecast on Sunday.
Robin Hood opens nationally May 14th, 2010.

Starring: Russell Crowe as Robin Hood, Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian, William Hurt as William Marshall, Mark Strong as Sir Godfrey, Mark Addy as Friar Tuck, Oscar Isaac as Prince John, Danny Huston as King Richard, Eileen Atkins as Eleanor of Aquitaine, with Max von Sydow.
Directed by Ridley Scott

http://www.robinhoodthemovie.com/

Below, the longer trailer I previously posted here.

Matthew Macfadyen, who plays The Sheriff of Nothingham in Robin Hood is an actor I've been following for quite a while, as he is almost always pitch-perfect in every role he plays.
He first came to my attention when he was so compelling as the brilliant but emotionally conflicted MI-5 agent Tom Quinn in TV's Spooks (MI-5), and then played Mr. Darcy in the terrific 2006 film production I loved of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, opposite the beautiful and beguiling Keira Knightley.



More recently he was fabulous as the lead of Arthur Clennam in the Andrew Davies adaption of the BBC-1 TV miniseries of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit, which was telecast here on PBS as part of Masterpiece Classic, which, in my opinion, may've been the single best thing on TV last year. It deserved to win the 2009 Emmy for Best Miniseries it garnered.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/littledorrit/index.html

The quality of every single episode was so amazing that I just hated when it came to an end on Sunday nights and I had to wait another week to see what happened.
I may've even loved it more than I did Cranford, which is saying something.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/cranford/index.html

Months later, I was somewhat surprised to discover how many people I knew who confessed to me that, while they don't "usually watch PBS," they got hooked on this production because it was so damn believable.

If you agree, be sure to watch writer Andrew Davies discuss the characters and his adaption of Dickens here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/littledorrit/slideshow.html

Next Masterpiece Classic program is Northanger Abbey,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/northangerabbey/index.html

As if being so good in top-rate TV shows and films wasn't enough to create envy, Matthew Macfadyen is also the husband of the fabulous actress Keeley Hawes, who was MI5 agent Zoe in Spooks and who more recently starred in BBC America's Ashes to Ashes.



Keeley, as a brunette, is exactly like the girl I married in a recurring dream I had when I was in high school in North Miami Beach, and life here in hum-drum South Florida was just too boring to contemplate when I wasn't involved with sports or politics.
In my dream, she and I lived in Essex but commuted to the City for our great jobs, me in advertising and her in film/TV.
In later dreams, we had a daughter that looked a bit like, well, Romola Garai -who just played Emma- but who sings more like Essex's own adorable Pixie Lott.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/emma/index.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/emma/watch.html


Thanks a Lott, Pixie: Students in her home town get a music lesson in the form of a free gig
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1248806/Thanks-Lott-Pixie-students-home-town-music-lesson-form-free-gig.html

The approaching hoofbeats of Robin of Locksley -that's Robin Hood to you

The original 1938 Robin Hood film, The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Raines and Basil Rathbone, remain one of my all-time favorite films, one I've seen and enjoyed at least thirty separate times.

 

The thing to consider when you see this film is that although Olivia de Havilland was only 25 years-old when she filmed this, and three years younger than Vivian Leigh with whom she starred in Gone With the Wind the following year, yet she was cast to play Melanie, Scarlett's older sister, and was superb. 

She is the only star of either film that's still alive, and remains movie royalty.

 

Of the upcoming remake of the gritty swashbuckler, due out in May, we now finally have a film trailer to analyze for great portent. Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Mark Addy, Max von Sydow and Oscar Isaac, directed by Ridley Scott. Opening May 14, 2010. For film synopsis and images see: http://www.robinhoodthemovie.com 

For a historical perspective, see Robin Hood and his Historical Context By Dr Mike Ibeji http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/robin_01.shtml