While the Marvel Universe continues to chug along and James Gunn attempts to resuscitate the DC universe into something worth watching, we will yet again go back to the world of graphic novels for our inspiration on book vs movie. It’s really a very untapped realm as there are so many good horror comics out there, many without adaptations yet. The ones that have been adapted are very fun and interesting. Today is the mostly forgotten early 2000s movie From Hell (watch it Here), which is based on the stunning and epic graphic novel from famed wizard and all-around cranky dude Alan Moore. Like many graphic novels, the journey to page and then screen was a long and arduous one. It is based on the very real killings in Whitechapel that were later attributed to Jack the Ripper. While both have a lot of truths to them along with...
- 3/1/2024
- by Andrew Hatfield
- JoBlo.com
Exclusive: Lili Simmons (Power Book IV: Force), Kim Coates (The White Houe Plumbers), Igby Rigney (Midnight Mass), Tom Bower (El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie) and Justin Marcel McManus (Power Book II: Ghost) will topline Southern Gothic (working title), an upcoming indie drama from writer-director Tom Schulman (Dead Poets Society), which has wrapped production.
The story is set in the dangerous and shady world of illegal, high-stakes keno gambling, in a run-down plantation house owned by Nick (Coates) in the rural South, at the turn of the 21st century. Nick is enamored with the smart, tough and charming Keno ace Diana’s (Simmons) intent to win big and is determined to stake her. Little Nick (Rigney), a one-time prodigy keno hustler, now reduced to servicing pool tables, strikes up a friendship with Diana and coaches her to win against the odds. Diana must then prove herself in a man’s...
The story is set in the dangerous and shady world of illegal, high-stakes keno gambling, in a run-down plantation house owned by Nick (Coates) in the rural South, at the turn of the 21st century. Nick is enamored with the smart, tough and charming Keno ace Diana’s (Simmons) intent to win big and is determined to stake her. Little Nick (Rigney), a one-time prodigy keno hustler, now reduced to servicing pool tables, strikes up a friendship with Diana and coaches her to win against the odds. Diana must then prove herself in a man’s...
- 4/8/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Who got signed, promoted, hired or fired? The Hollywood Reporter’s Rep Sheet rounds up the week in representation news. To submit announcements for consideration, contact rebecca.sun@thr.com.
Scribe Signs
Novelist and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias has signed with Verve. He most recently served as an executive producer on NBC’s Aquarius. In addition to penning 10 novels, Yglesias also wrote the screenplays for Peter Weir’s Fearless, Roman Polanski’s Death and the Maiden, Billie August’s 1998 version of Les Miserables, Albert and Allen Hughes’ From Hell and Walter Salles’ Dark Water. He continues to be managed by Russell Hollander of Hollander Entertainment.
Posed...
Scribe Signs
Novelist and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias has signed with Verve. He most recently served as an executive producer on NBC’s Aquarius. In addition to penning 10 novels, Yglesias also wrote the screenplays for Peter Weir’s Fearless, Roman Polanski’s Death and the Maiden, Billie August’s 1998 version of Les Miserables, Albert and Allen Hughes’ From Hell and Walter Salles’ Dark Water. He continues to be managed by Russell Hollander of Hollander Entertainment.
Posed...
- 8/28/2017
- by Rebecca Sun
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It has long been a known fact that Hollywood’s well of ideas has run dry. The box office success of countless retreads, remakes, reboots and updates (whatever you want to label them) only serves to condemn the movie-going public as accomplices in this crime of imagination. Yet for every rule there is an exception and, while some would be reluctant to admit it, Hollywood has indeed produced some remakes worthy of their original’s legacy. This list counts down the top five horror remakes that achieved the impossible: they did not suck…
5. Dark Water (2005)
Directed by Walter Salles
Written by Rafael Yglesias
American filmmakers are obsessed with remaking foreign films in their own image (it’s like they’re afraid we’ll fall asleep from having to actually read subtitles). In the case of Japanese Horror Cinema the American versions tend to eschew the quiet tense dread that is...
5. Dark Water (2005)
Directed by Walter Salles
Written by Rafael Yglesias
American filmmakers are obsessed with remaking foreign films in their own image (it’s like they’re afraid we’ll fall asleep from having to actually read subtitles). In the case of Japanese Horror Cinema the American versions tend to eschew the quiet tense dread that is...
- 10/5/2013
- by Andrew Perez
- SoundOnSight
"Les Misérables" is shaping up to be one of the biggest film events in recent memory. Thanks to an amazing cast that includes Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Russell Crowe, an Oscar-winning director in Tom Hooper and the public's abiding love for the classic Broadway musical it's based on, "Les Misérables" seems poised to be a major power at both the box office and at the Oscars.
But what if we told you that back in 1998, another acclaimed director put together an even more impressive cast for an adaptation of "Les Misérables" — one that has been almost completely forgotten?
Yes, it's true. So why don't more people know about the 1998 adaptation of "Les Misérables"? What was that film all about? And what is the new "Les Misérables" doing differently to ensure it meets more success than its unjustly overlooked predecessor? Read on, as we tell you all about The Other "Les Misérables.
But what if we told you that back in 1998, another acclaimed director put together an even more impressive cast for an adaptation of "Les Misérables" — one that has been almost completely forgotten?
Yes, it's true. So why don't more people know about the 1998 adaptation of "Les Misérables"? What was that film all about? And what is the new "Les Misérables" doing differently to ensure it meets more success than its unjustly overlooked predecessor? Read on, as we tell you all about The Other "Les Misérables.
- 12/11/2012
- by Scott Harris
- NextMovie
The gray rolling seas thundered through the forest of pilings under the piers, sometimes cresting enough to send a geyser of wind-whipped froth up onto the decking. Other places, it poured through the gaps the wind and tide had eaten through the dunes and poured into the beach town streets. It pulled boats large and small from their moorings in the lagoon marinas and piled them like a child’s toys up on the land. Some in apartment buildings would tell of the cars in the ground level garage floating against each other bathtub playthings. But there was nothing childlike in the way it took entire houses, made seaside villages look like an extension of the ocean and not the land.
For the day and a half I watched Hurricane Sandy pound my home state of New Jersey – which was all the time I had before I lost my cable...
For the day and a half I watched Hurricane Sandy pound my home state of New Jersey – which was all the time I had before I lost my cable...
- 11/2/2012
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Directed by: Peter Weir
Written by: Rafael Yglesias
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Rosie Perez
Genre: Drama
Year: 1993
It’s difficult for humans to orient their lives within the context of their lives reaching an end, as if death were not an actuality but an inconvenience. Fearless asks how a person can live after stepping back from the precipice.
Jeff Bridges lends his warm affect to the role of Max Klein, an architect who survives a plane crash. Our first image of him is walking calmly through a cornfield, a baby in his arms and a child clasping his hand. Dubbed “The Good Samaritan” by the media, we are told of how Max led the survivors out of the fuselage and to safety.
He’s no hero, though, but a man reawakened. Not just rejuvenated but reborn. The prickly trivialities of his profession no longer bother him, his allergy to strawberries has miraculously vanished,...
Written by: Rafael Yglesias
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Rosie Perez
Genre: Drama
Year: 1993
It’s difficult for humans to orient their lives within the context of their lives reaching an end, as if death were not an actuality but an inconvenience. Fearless asks how a person can live after stepping back from the precipice.
Jeff Bridges lends his warm affect to the role of Max Klein, an architect who survives a plane crash. Our first image of him is walking calmly through a cornfield, a baby in his arms and a child clasping his hand. Dubbed “The Good Samaritan” by the media, we are told of how Max led the survivors out of the fuselage and to safety.
He’s no hero, though, but a man reawakened. Not just rejuvenated but reborn. The prickly trivialities of his profession no longer bother him, his allergy to strawberries has miraculously vanished,...
- 10/5/2011
- by Shane Ramirez
- SoundOnSight
Greetings Fango Fiends! It's time once again for another installment of Fangoria Musick's Lists Of Doom - the column where we track down some of your favorite (or soon-to-be favorite) bands to get their thoughts on on the world of horror, and which films scare them.
For #26 we caught up with Nick Coleman, drummer for Chicago's 1997 - whose sophomore album Notes From The Underground hit's retail this Tuesday. So what scares Nick? Check out his List of classic films and writers after the jump!
A Clockwork Orange (1971) written by Anthony Burgess
Just the over all crazy state of mind that Alex is in.. that’s why I love this movie.
28 Weeks Later (2007) written by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
The best modern-day zombie movie
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) written by Wes Craven
A classic. Love Freddy, not Jason
The Shining (1980) written by Stephen King
I saw this when I was little...
For #26 we caught up with Nick Coleman, drummer for Chicago's 1997 - whose sophomore album Notes From The Underground hit's retail this Tuesday. So what scares Nick? Check out his List of classic films and writers after the jump!
A Clockwork Orange (1971) written by Anthony Burgess
Just the over all crazy state of mind that Alex is in.. that’s why I love this movie.
28 Weeks Later (2007) written by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
The best modern-day zombie movie
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) written by Wes Craven
A classic. Love Freddy, not Jason
The Shining (1980) written by Stephen King
I saw this when I was little...
- 10/11/2009
- by no-reply@fangoria.com (James Zahn)
- Fangoria
HBO has assembled the cast of J.J. Abrams' drama pilot The Anatomy of Hope, which Abrams has signed on to direct.
Chris Messina, John Ortiz, Simon Callow, Valerie Pettiford, Matt Craven, Deepti Daryanani, Daryl Edwards, Diego Klattenhoff, Kerry Condon and Sarah Knowlton have been tapped to star in the hospital drama that explores cancer battles from the patients' point of view.
Hope, based on Jerome Groopman's book, is produced by Abrams' Bad Robot through the company's deal at Warner Bros. TV. It was written by Tom Schulman and Rafael Yglesias, who are exec producing with Abrams and Bryan Burk. The project marks the first pilot to come out of Bad Robot's pact with WBTV.
Messina (HBO's Six Feet Under) will play an oncologist who goes between being overly friendly and aloof. Ortiz (Miami Vice) will play a recent cancer survivor. Callow (The Phantom of the Opera) will play one of the top oncologists in the U.S. Pettiford (UPN's "Half & Half") plays a terminally ill cancer patient.
Chris Messina, John Ortiz, Simon Callow, Valerie Pettiford, Matt Craven, Deepti Daryanani, Daryl Edwards, Diego Klattenhoff, Kerry Condon and Sarah Knowlton have been tapped to star in the hospital drama that explores cancer battles from the patients' point of view.
Hope, based on Jerome Groopman's book, is produced by Abrams' Bad Robot through the company's deal at Warner Bros. TV. It was written by Tom Schulman and Rafael Yglesias, who are exec producing with Abrams and Bryan Burk. The project marks the first pilot to come out of Bad Robot's pact with WBTV.
Messina (HBO's Six Feet Under) will play an oncologist who goes between being overly friendly and aloof. Ortiz (Miami Vice) will play a recent cancer survivor. Callow (The Phantom of the Opera) will play one of the top oncologists in the U.S. Pettiford (UPN's "Half & Half") plays a terminally ill cancer patient.
- 5/15/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- Four filmmakers will each receive $10,000 and Japanese television broadcast rights for their next project thanks to this year's Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Awards, it was announced Thursday.
The winning filmmakers are Lucia Cedron (Agnus Dei) from Latin America, Caran Hartsfield (Bury Me Standing) from the U.S., Tomoko Kana (Two by the River) from Japan and Dagur Kari (The Good Heart) from Europe.
Sundance Institute staffers will assist each winner in obtaining financing and distribution for their upcoming projects. Their next features will be shown on NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.), which has five 24-hour TV and three radio channels in Japan.
Each winner was chosen from 12 finalists based on their projects.
The jury included Brad Silberling, Bent Hamer, Pawel Pawlikowski, Rafael Yglesias and other filmmakers.
The awards were founded in 1996 to "support visionary film directors" from four global regions: Europe, Latin America, the U.S. and Japan. Previous recipients include Miranda July, Andrucha Waddington, Walter Salles and Chris Eyre.
The winners will receive the award Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival awards ceremony.
The winning filmmakers are Lucia Cedron (Agnus Dei) from Latin America, Caran Hartsfield (Bury Me Standing) from the U.S., Tomoko Kana (Two by the River) from Japan and Dagur Kari (The Good Heart) from Europe.
Sundance Institute staffers will assist each winner in obtaining financing and distribution for their upcoming projects. Their next features will be shown on NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.), which has five 24-hour TV and three radio channels in Japan.
Each winner was chosen from 12 finalists based on their projects.
The jury included Brad Silberling, Bent Hamer, Pawel Pawlikowski, Rafael Yglesias and other filmmakers.
The awards were founded in 1996 to "support visionary film directors" from four global regions: Europe, Latin America, the U.S. and Japan. Previous recipients include Miranda July, Andrucha Waddington, Walter Salles and Chris Eyre.
The winners will receive the award Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival awards ceremony.
- 1/26/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
HBO has given the green light to a medical drama pilot that J.J. Abrams is in negotiations to executive produce and possibly direct.
The untitled project, from feature writers Tom Schulman, an Oscar winner for 1989's Dead Poets Society, and Rafael Yglesias, is a hospital drama that explores the battle against cancer from the patients' point of view.
It is based on the book "The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness" by Jerome Groopman, a professor at Harvard Medical School and writer for the New Yorker.
The book, published in 2004, tells the stories of seriously ill patients of Groopman who had relied on their hope to cope with their illness.
Groopman and his wife, Pamela Hartzband, also a professor at Harvard Medical School, will serve as consultants on the show.
The project was developed internally at HBO with Schulman and Yglesias, who also are executive producing, and was then taken to Abrams.
Abrams will executive produce through his overall deal with Warner Bros. TV.
The untitled project, from feature writers Tom Schulman, an Oscar winner for 1989's Dead Poets Society, and Rafael Yglesias, is a hospital drama that explores the battle against cancer from the patients' point of view.
It is based on the book "The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness" by Jerome Groopman, a professor at Harvard Medical School and writer for the New Yorker.
The book, published in 2004, tells the stories of seriously ill patients of Groopman who had relied on their hope to cope with their illness.
Groopman and his wife, Pamela Hartzband, also a professor at Harvard Medical School, will serve as consultants on the show.
The project was developed internally at HBO with Schulman and Yglesias, who also are executive producing, and was then taken to Abrams.
Abrams will executive produce through his overall deal with Warner Bros. TV.
Fresh from his Oscar-nominated The Motorcycle Diaries, acclaimed director Walter Salles takes the horror movie plunge with Dark Water, a psychological thriller with the accent truly on the psychological.
With his stirring visual sense very much intact here, Salles sets the creepy mood eloquently, but the picture -- based on the Japanese film by Hideo Nakata and a short story by Koji Suzuki, both of The Ring fame -- ultimately fails to reward all the little shivers with any satisfying jolts.
Although it's refreshing to have a horror script (by Fearless screenwriter Rafael Yglesias) that veers away from the usual zombies and slashers, the recurring thematic elements in Dark Water are still all too familiar to anyone who has seen any installment of The Ring cycle, not to mention the recent Amityville Horror or Hide and Seek.
That watered-down effect, combined with an unsatisfying ending that stints on the kind of audience-shocking coup de grace that translates into repeat viewings, will make for respectable but most likely not summer-worthy numbers.
There's no shortage of icky atmosphere in the picture's setup, with newly divorced mom Dahlia Williams (Jennifer Connelly) and her young daughter, Ceci (Ariel Gade), renting a depressing apartment in a sprawling block of bleak concrete monoliths on bleaker Roosevelt Island.
It's the kind of joint that would make the apartment in Polanski's The Tenant look downright homey by comparison, so it's not surprising that the nasty-looking dark water stain that starts to form on the ceiling can only lead to worse stuff.
Of course, a bad leak is never really about a bad leak, especially in the Japanese thriller arena, and Salles and Yglesias plumb some murky psychological depths having much (a little too much) to do with Dahlia's own abandonment issues and big-city alienation.
By the time the inevitable deluge arrives, one can almost hear the Lennon-McCartney refrain of "Ah, look at all the lonely people" along with all that dripping and sinister whispering in the walls.
But while the story is a bit of a letdown, the performances are watertight. Connelly brings a nicely grounded and tightly coiled restraint to her role, while John C. Reilly is an absolute hoot as the smarmy con man of a complex manager who hustles Dahlia into taking the apartment.
Also effective is Pete Postlethwaite as Veeck, the building's moody janitor; Tim Roth as a sympathetic attorney who appears to work out of his car; and young Gade as Dahlia's big-eyed daughter.
There are also no complaints about the oodles of eerie atmosphere. You can almost smell the suffocating dankness in Affonso Beato's evocative, shadow-laced cinematography and production designer Therese DePrez's appropriately washed-out earth tones.
Adding to the heady textures is another elegantly off-center score by frequent David Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti.
Dark Water
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures presents
a Pandemonium/Vertigo Entertainment production
Credits:
Director: Walter Salles
Screenwriter: Rafael Yglesias
Based on the novel Honogurai Mizuno Soko Kara by Koji Suzuki and the Hideo Nakata film Dark Water, produced by Taka Ichise
Producers: Bill Mechanic, Roy Lee and Doug Davison
Executive producer: Ashley Kramer
Director of photography: Affonso Beato
Production designer: Therese DePrez
Editor: Daniel Rezende
Costume designer: Michael Wilkinson
Music: Angelo Badalamenti
Cast:
Dahlia Williams: Jennifer Connelly
Mr. Murray: John C. Reilly
Platzer: Tim Roth
Kyle: Dougray Scott
Veeck: Pete Postlethwaite
Mrs. Finkle: Camryn Manheim
Cecilia: Ariel Gade
Natasha/Young Dahlia: Perla Haney-Jardine
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 100 minutes...
With his stirring visual sense very much intact here, Salles sets the creepy mood eloquently, but the picture -- based on the Japanese film by Hideo Nakata and a short story by Koji Suzuki, both of The Ring fame -- ultimately fails to reward all the little shivers with any satisfying jolts.
Although it's refreshing to have a horror script (by Fearless screenwriter Rafael Yglesias) that veers away from the usual zombies and slashers, the recurring thematic elements in Dark Water are still all too familiar to anyone who has seen any installment of The Ring cycle, not to mention the recent Amityville Horror or Hide and Seek.
That watered-down effect, combined with an unsatisfying ending that stints on the kind of audience-shocking coup de grace that translates into repeat viewings, will make for respectable but most likely not summer-worthy numbers.
There's no shortage of icky atmosphere in the picture's setup, with newly divorced mom Dahlia Williams (Jennifer Connelly) and her young daughter, Ceci (Ariel Gade), renting a depressing apartment in a sprawling block of bleak concrete monoliths on bleaker Roosevelt Island.
It's the kind of joint that would make the apartment in Polanski's The Tenant look downright homey by comparison, so it's not surprising that the nasty-looking dark water stain that starts to form on the ceiling can only lead to worse stuff.
Of course, a bad leak is never really about a bad leak, especially in the Japanese thriller arena, and Salles and Yglesias plumb some murky psychological depths having much (a little too much) to do with Dahlia's own abandonment issues and big-city alienation.
By the time the inevitable deluge arrives, one can almost hear the Lennon-McCartney refrain of "Ah, look at all the lonely people" along with all that dripping and sinister whispering in the walls.
But while the story is a bit of a letdown, the performances are watertight. Connelly brings a nicely grounded and tightly coiled restraint to her role, while John C. Reilly is an absolute hoot as the smarmy con man of a complex manager who hustles Dahlia into taking the apartment.
Also effective is Pete Postlethwaite as Veeck, the building's moody janitor; Tim Roth as a sympathetic attorney who appears to work out of his car; and young Gade as Dahlia's big-eyed daughter.
There are also no complaints about the oodles of eerie atmosphere. You can almost smell the suffocating dankness in Affonso Beato's evocative, shadow-laced cinematography and production designer Therese DePrez's appropriately washed-out earth tones.
Adding to the heady textures is another elegantly off-center score by frequent David Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti.
Dark Water
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures presents
a Pandemonium/Vertigo Entertainment production
Credits:
Director: Walter Salles
Screenwriter: Rafael Yglesias
Based on the novel Honogurai Mizuno Soko Kara by Koji Suzuki and the Hideo Nakata film Dark Water, produced by Taka Ichise
Producers: Bill Mechanic, Roy Lee and Doug Davison
Executive producer: Ashley Kramer
Director of photography: Affonso Beato
Production designer: Therese DePrez
Editor: Daniel Rezende
Costume designer: Michael Wilkinson
Music: Angelo Badalamenti
Cast:
Dahlia Williams: Jennifer Connelly
Mr. Murray: John C. Reilly
Platzer: Tim Roth
Kyle: Dougray Scott
Veeck: Pete Postlethwaite
Mrs. Finkle: Camryn Manheim
Cecilia: Ariel Gade
Natasha/Young Dahlia: Perla Haney-Jardine
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 100 minutes...
- 7/29/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Those expecting to hear Liam Neeson belt out a chorus of "One Day More" will likely be disappointed, but most others will find this no-singing, no-dancing version of "Les Miserables" to be a handsomely mounted, quite-faithfully adapted version of Victor Hugo's oft-told tale.
If anything, director Bille August ("Pelle the Conqueror", "Smilla's Sense of Snow") and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias ("Fearless") might have been a little too reverential. The painstakingly by-the-book approach can have a rigid, smothering effect on the already dense material.
While strong performances from Neeson as the eternally hunted Valjean and "Shine"'s Geoffrey Rush as his obsessed hunter, Javert, significantly offset the picture's frustratingly linear approach to storytelling, this "Les Miz" will be a hard sell to audiences overly familiar with the subject matter.
Not to be confused with the recent nonmusical, loosely adapted Claude Lelouch French version, the August edition manages to cover all the main points in slightly more than two hours -- which, given the heft of the source material, is a significant accomplishment.
August has always had a strong handle on humanity, not to mention an eye for great faces. Here, Neeson's vigorous aura of goodness is put to highly effective use as the nobly reformed but conscience-ridden Valjean. He's a great fit.
Rush's sad-dog countenance, meanwhile, makes him a natural for Javert, the police inspector whose impossibly dogged, myopic pursuit of Valjean makes one want to scream, "Get a hobby!"
The scenes in which the two face off lend the film a rich potency. As for the other performances, while Uma Thurman has the requisite waiflike eyes and delicate build to at least look the part of poverty-stricken Fantine, the makeup department goes a little overboard (as in unintentionally funny) in trying to make her appear increasingly pitiful.
Certainly the picture's look cannot be faulted. With Prague, Czech Republic, impressively doubling for early 19th century France, the production values are sumptuously evocative.
Still, one is left feeling that something is missing. While Basil Poledouris' gentle orchestrations occasionally seem to quote the Broadway musical version, this umpteenth rendition of "Les Miserables" needed a less slavish, more inspired treatment to truly sing.
LES MISERABLES
Sony Pictures Releasing
Columbia Pictures
Mandalay Entertainment presents
A Sarah Radclyffe production
A James Gorman production
A film by Bille August
Director: Bille August
Screenwriter: Rafael Yglesias
Based on the novel "Les Miserables" by:
Victor Hugo
Producers: Sarah Radclyffe, James Gorman
Director of photography: Jorgen Persson
Production designer: Anna Asp
Editor: Janus Billeskov-Jansen
Costume designer: Gabriella Pescucci
Music: Basil Poledouris
Casting: Leonora Davis
Color/stereo
Cast:
Valjean: Liam Neeson
Javert: Geoffrey Rush
Fantine: Uma Thurman
Cosette: Claire Danes
Marius: Hans Matheson
Running time -- 129 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
If anything, director Bille August ("Pelle the Conqueror", "Smilla's Sense of Snow") and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias ("Fearless") might have been a little too reverential. The painstakingly by-the-book approach can have a rigid, smothering effect on the already dense material.
While strong performances from Neeson as the eternally hunted Valjean and "Shine"'s Geoffrey Rush as his obsessed hunter, Javert, significantly offset the picture's frustratingly linear approach to storytelling, this "Les Miz" will be a hard sell to audiences overly familiar with the subject matter.
Not to be confused with the recent nonmusical, loosely adapted Claude Lelouch French version, the August edition manages to cover all the main points in slightly more than two hours -- which, given the heft of the source material, is a significant accomplishment.
August has always had a strong handle on humanity, not to mention an eye for great faces. Here, Neeson's vigorous aura of goodness is put to highly effective use as the nobly reformed but conscience-ridden Valjean. He's a great fit.
Rush's sad-dog countenance, meanwhile, makes him a natural for Javert, the police inspector whose impossibly dogged, myopic pursuit of Valjean makes one want to scream, "Get a hobby!"
The scenes in which the two face off lend the film a rich potency. As for the other performances, while Uma Thurman has the requisite waiflike eyes and delicate build to at least look the part of poverty-stricken Fantine, the makeup department goes a little overboard (as in unintentionally funny) in trying to make her appear increasingly pitiful.
Certainly the picture's look cannot be faulted. With Prague, Czech Republic, impressively doubling for early 19th century France, the production values are sumptuously evocative.
Still, one is left feeling that something is missing. While Basil Poledouris' gentle orchestrations occasionally seem to quote the Broadway musical version, this umpteenth rendition of "Les Miserables" needed a less slavish, more inspired treatment to truly sing.
LES MISERABLES
Sony Pictures Releasing
Columbia Pictures
Mandalay Entertainment presents
A Sarah Radclyffe production
A James Gorman production
A film by Bille August
Director: Bille August
Screenwriter: Rafael Yglesias
Based on the novel "Les Miserables" by:
Victor Hugo
Producers: Sarah Radclyffe, James Gorman
Director of photography: Jorgen Persson
Production designer: Anna Asp
Editor: Janus Billeskov-Jansen
Costume designer: Gabriella Pescucci
Music: Basil Poledouris
Casting: Leonora Davis
Color/stereo
Cast:
Valjean: Liam Neeson
Javert: Geoffrey Rush
Fantine: Uma Thurman
Cosette: Claire Danes
Marius: Hans Matheson
Running time -- 129 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 4/24/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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