If youre fed up to the back teeth of having to endure the fawning over the historical brit-flick The Kings Speech, the bad news is the chances of it doing well at the Oscars are rather high. For whatever reason- though once suspects some sort of post-colonial regret- Americans seem somewhat enraptured with the banal machinations of the English Royal family. The King's Speech director
Tom Hooper, whose stock levels in 12 months have risen from Brit t.v. quality helmer to potential A-list status, has supposedly tuned down the opportunity to oversee one of the multitudinous comic book adaptations- in this case the high profile Iron Man 3 (now under
Shane Black's direction) - to adapt the resolutely middle-brow, middle-class musical
Les Miserables, set in 19th century France. The celebrated West-End production, based on Victor Hugo's novel, has run for decades despite initially frosty reviews and spawned numerous international versions and remains the musical of choice for those slightly too clever to read the Daily Mail. According to
The LA Times, a new Les Mis will be produced by Working Title Films, a small UK production company whose previous box office successes have included Bean: The Movie and Atonement. No timescale for the production or any word on who is writing the script has been suggested, nor potential talent named, but Hooper seems intent upon producing work which- if not ground-breaking- retains an unusual standard of integrity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jo4FvpN3_g