"The Phantom of the Opera" comes to the big screen

[scarlettina]

And I will so be there on December 22; it looks absolutely stunning. Here's the trailer with thanks to gamethyme.

I'm going to start looking into where this will be playing now. Who's coming with me?

Edit: The Seattle Times is running a piece on the return of the movie musical. Thought some of you might be interested.

Comments

[frabjousdave.livejournal.com]

I'll be with you in spirit, but I'll be watching it up here with as many of the girls as I can sneak away from their boys.

Maybe we'll watch it twice.

[gamethyme.livejournal.com]

Depends on the theatre and the showtimes.

No.

Wait.

The 22nd is a Wednesday. I'll be hosting opengamenight.

I guess setauuta and I will be going on the 23rd, instead.

... but we'll be playing the music at Game Night!

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

Hmm -- i'm thinkin' I must come along (not something to bring the family too I think -- she'd be bored out of her mind and he's not to into it...)

[deedop.livejournal.com]

Gak!

(Chews tongue, wanders off to listen to Sondheim)


(Sorry, had to say it. We hates the Webber, we do.)

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

That's okay. I'm a huge Sondheim fan.

[deedop.livejournal.com]

And I'm sure you saw in that article that Sam Mendes is on tap to direct a film version of Sweeney Todd, eh? Now that should be worth the wait!

A theater I won't be haunting

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

I don't like Webber, and I'll be entertaining my dad then anyway, so that's a no, but what a fantastic article! Beyond the Sea sounded great ... maybe we can see that in January? And maybe we can do a Pennies from Heaven video night ...

Re: A theater I won't be haunting

[deedop.livejournal.com]

Check out the Beyond the Sea soundtrack here:

Kevin Spacey Sings Bobby Darin (http://www.mp3.com/An+Unusual+Suspect%3A+Kevin+Spacey+Sings+Bobby+Darin/stories/1088.html)

He can act and sing!

[scarletbronte.livejournal.com]

I'd like to come with you! Phantom is one of my faves...

I tremble in fear.

[kistha.livejournal.com]

I don't know what to do - I have doubts, big horrible doubts. I'm not totally a purist, but I do tend to prefer the original version I heard.

Now I saw Phantom twice in Vancouver, and while I loved the first one -with Jeff Hyslop as the Phantom (a comedic actor) the highly vaunted Toronto traveling cast was 'a disaster beyond imagination'. The phantom *whined* all the way through it. I sat appalled and disgruntled through the whole thing mourning my lost spending cash for at least two months.

Now while a film ticket isn't nearly so much - there by making it easier to swallow if it does suck - I don't know if I should see it when it comes out, listen to what trusted friends have to say and go later, or wait for DVD where I can swear at the TV at length if I need too.

The trailer at first eased my suspicions, until I saw that their Phantom is an overly handsome young man - who engages in sword fights. Then all the doubts came crashing in again. Not another happily received play/book ruined by the meddlings of Hollywood to make it "more hip for the Now Crowd". Where is the older father figure, experienced, twisted genius that uses guile, magic and the famous "punjab lasso"? And where is the _fantastic_ death head costume for the lavish Masqurade....sorry this is awfully long. End rant.

Yep I have no idea what I'm gonna do. Can I get back to you on that one?

PS - Kevin Spacey can sing!?!? Like Sinatra in fact.

Re: I tremble in fear.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Don't tremble in fear. Some of it is perspective. It looks as though the principles are both about 20 years old, so the Phantom, relatively speaking, looks about right at around 40. At least, to me, and I'm pretty darn purist about these things. (I mean, really, Minnie Driver is playing Carlotta. Christine would have to be a child.)

If that scene of the Phantom standing at the top of the steps is, in fact, the masquerade though, then I, too, will miss the death's-head mask.

As for the sword-fighting, well, this is Hollywood. We don't yet know how all that's going to play. A lot of people had doubts about how Chicago would be translated to the screen, but it seems to have done okay. Me, I'm willing to give it a chance.

Re: I tremble in fear.

[deedop.livejournal.com]

The fear I would have (if I cared for the source material) is that the film is being directed by Joel Schumacher -- the man who single-handedly destroyed the Batman franchise.

Re: I tremble in fear.

[bedii.livejournal.com]

I'm told he did a couple of good films early in his career, and one good war film about four years ago that didn't really get distribution and dumped to video. I'm told that. I can say that what he's done since Batman hasn't inspired me to seek out his work. The one about the stroke victim, and the one about the reporter sounded O.K., but most of the rest seem to be bad news. And we won't even go into 8mm, O.K.?

Re: I tremble in fear.

[kistha.livejournal.com]

OK. Good points. I really do want to see it. Hell Evita turned out better than I thought it would....although unlike everyone else it wasn't Madonna that worried me.

So put me on the maybe list.

Hmm.

[ladyjestocost.livejournal.com]

We'll have to see what bedii says. The last time I didn't take his advice on movies I was sorry for days afterwards.

Re: Hmm.

[bedii.livejournal.com]

Still gathering information. As a critic Hank has either seen a partial cut or has a friend that has done so--I can't remember which--and he told me that the female lead is incredibly beautiful, sings like an angel, and could not act her way out of a wet paper bag made from toilet tissue. This is not necessarily a deal-breaker: I've seen different film versions of the book before with actresses that fit into that category. (The plot always makes me think of Svengali, which then leads to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which means I end up in a frame of mind that's not what the writer, director, and actors have been hoping for.) At the worst, we can be happy that rubber nipples would be out of period on the costumes...I'll try to see what news I can scare up.