Checkout this fantastic video.......the first real red-carpet video we've got....and features interviews with all the main cast.....

VIDEO: Phantom at Bloomingdale's

http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Video.aspx?ci=502814

BLOOMINGDALE NEW YORK: Photos (MORE)

Howard Hughes flies again

(Filed: 19/11/2004)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jh ... mmain.html

John Hiscock reports from Los Angeles on the first screenings of Scorsese's long-awaited Hughes biopic 'The Aviator' and the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Phantom of the Opera'

I have just seen early screenings of two of the most eagerly-awaited American films of the year: Martin Scorsese's The Aviator and the screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. One I found enjoyable; the other was a disappointment.

For the most part The Aviator holds the attention despite its running time of almost three hours, while I would have happily lopped 30 minutes out of Phantom of the Opera's two hours and 20 minutes. It has taken Lloyd Webber and director Joel Schumacher 16 years to bring to the screen the mega-hit stage musical about a disfigured musical genius who haunts Paris's opera house. But the transfer is not entirely successful.

Phantom' film, show soundtracks will differ

http://www.phantomfans.net/index.php?showtopic=4311

You'll find similarities and some new tracks

Q: Mr. Heldenfels, I wonder if you could answer a question for me. I noticed that ``The Phantom of the Opera'' is coming out in a movie at the end of the year. As that is my favorite musical, I want to know if the music is the same in the movie as in the play. I certainly hope so! -- Cynthia Y., via e-mail.

A: Funny, Cynthia, I didn't think I looked like a fiftysomething white guy with a mustache and glasses. R.D. passed your question to me because I handle movie-related queries.

The answer is yes and no. The soundtrack for Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, which is being released Tuesday, does include essentially the same music. However, there are subtle differences when compared to the track listings on The Original Cast Recording: The Phantom of the Opera.

MORE AT LINK

MSNBC: The Phantom of the Opera


Starring: Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson, Simon Callow, Ciaran Hind, Minnie Driver

Director: Joel Schumacher

Story: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical comes to the big screen. A disfigured genius (Butler) hides in an opera house and falls in love with the beautiful Christine (Rossum). The Phantom is determined to make her the new star of the opera. Butler plays Raoul, the Phantom’s rival for Christine’s affections. Driver (“Beautiful”) plays Carlotta, the soprano whom the Phantom thinks Christine should replace.

Buzz: Could “Phantom” become the “Chicago” of 2004? It does look likely that this film will end up on the list of best-picture nominees. However, Schumacher is a director with a spotty record. He can be good (“The Client,” “Tigerland”), but he can also be a bit of a hack (“Batman and Robin,” “8MM”). The question is: which Schumacher directed “Phantom”? The cast — other than Richardson, Callow and Driver — is fairly untested. Rossum is probably best known for playing Sean Penn’s murdered daughter in “Mystic River” and Butler for playing opposite Angelina Jolie in the “Tomb Raider” sequel. Wilson proved himself to be a talented actor playing Joe Pitt in Mike Nichols’ “Angels in America.”

MSNBC's 2004 Winter Movie Guide:

http://movies.msn.com/netcal/default.aspx?netcal=3325

You probably already know Gaston Leroux's oft-told romantic tale (after all, the musical has been running on Broadway since 1988). A disfigured masked musical genius (Gerard Butler) with a penchant for expressive organ playing and catacomb dwelling falls for naïve, nubile soprano Christine (Emmy Rossum) at the Paris Opera. Disaster follows. Before signing on, writer-director Joel Schumacher reportedly told Webber that he wanted a very young, very sexy cast. Webber wanted good singers. Both got their wish. Although Butler had little vocal experience prior to winning the lead (for which Antonio Banderas, Hugh Jackman and John Travolta had all been mentioned), Rossum is an octave-jumping vet, having spent her formative years performing at the Metropolitan Opera.

BLOOMINGDALE NEW YORK: Photos (MORE)

19 DAYS: To Go



Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams!
Purge your thoughts of the life you knew before!
Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar!

BTW - There's been news on various Phantom forum's saying that a 5m Soundtrack trailer featuring new clips was attached to Cold Case on A&E......anyone seen anything..... :?

Phantom of the Opera is my favorite song, form the minute I saw the play I just loved the granduer of the song.

PHANTOM: Concept Posters

Visit the Posters Section at the Official Site.

http://phantomthemovie.warnerbros.com/

I have a soft spot for that song too......though i also like the tunes of Music of the Night and All I Ask Of You......

Have you heard the movie version to these songs Ripper? What cha think?

Sarah Brightman has put 'Phantom of the Opera' behind her - mostly

By DOUG ELFMAN
REVIEW-JOURNAL
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/ ... 50052.html



Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the music for "Phantom of the Opera" specifically for his future ex-wife, Sarah Brightman, and her high, arching voice.

Brightman would have played the lead in a "Phantom" movie, too, had it been made earlier. The film adaptation of the Broadway musical is slated for theaters at the end of December. It stars Emmy Rossum, an 18-year-old who studied at the upper-crust Spence School in Manhattan.

Brightman, 44, says her thoughts on the making of the movie are just this: She hears it's great, and she's glad it is.

"I hope it goes really well for everybody. When was the show -- '86, '87? It took a long time for it to happen," she says, adding that now is a more appropriate time for a film version of the elaborate play.

"They're so brilliant with special effects. Lots of things can be achieved that couldn't, maybe, 14 years ago," she says. " `Lord of the Rings' is a typical example. They couldn't have done that a long time ago. It just wouldn't have looked right."

Brightman says she would have loved to have played her old part on film, once upon a time.

"If it had been filmed around the time I was doing it, I was at that age. I would have loved to have done it. But if somebody came to me now and said, `We're now doing a film of "Phantom of the Opera," would you do it?' I'd say no way. I've grown as an artist. I don't do that anymore. It was great while I was doing it, but I've kind of moved on."

Heya Arch...sorry was out of town!

I did not know Sarah Brightman was once upon-a-time married to Andrew Lloyd Webber! Nice article, but I do prefer Emily Rossum (what I've heard thus far) over her anyway..well, at least singing for The Phantom!

I've been listening to Sarah Brightman's version all along and hearing Emma's version was quite a shock at the beginning.......but i'm warmed to both versions now......

Regarding the relationship between SB and ALW, it is often said that that's the reason why he choose her to be apart of Phantom in the beginning.....and it's clear that she doesn't have a strong support group as say for Michael Crawford..... :wink:

Do you live in country NZ or in the city?......i'm assuming country since you own/train horses.....

Well, yesterday was also the Australian Idol final and i'm not feeling very happy because the singer i wanted to win didnt (Anthony Callea)..... .....oh well.....

SOUNTRACK: Advertisement (Video)

http://www.gerard-butler.net/video_main.htm

Also checkout another video of Gerard Butler and Billy Boyd at the European MTV Awards.......

AUTOGRAPHS: Phantom Cast

http://www.phantomfans.net/index.php?showtopic=4395

Andrew Lloyd Webber



Gerard Butler



Emma Rossum

Country NZ, but I live not that far from Queenstown! I used to live in Wellington for a while after I returned from Sydney! I missed home too much though and eventually returned to S. Island! Wellington's a great city though, just awefully windy at times...lol

That's a great pic of Gerard as the Phantom! I like his signature too! It flows like a Phantom's song!! lol

So Queenstown is the South and Wellington's the North?......i always remembered it as the other way around.

And from the LOTR documentaries, you would think that Wellington is windy......it is so exposed.....

I prefer Emma's, simple and quite elegant.......

PHANTOM: Concept Posters (MORE)

http://phantomthemovie.warnerbros.com/

BTW - Miruvor.......have you seen the various videos i've posted......what cha think?

News of the day


By James Inverne

source: http://www.time.com


How To Film A Phantom
The screen version of the international stage hit is finally here. Can it revive the Hollywood musical?

He shot 2002's Phone Booth in a mere 12 days. But Joel Schumacher knows that some dreams take longer than others. Back in 1988, after St. Elmo's Fire and The Lost Boys had introduced him as a promising if lightweight young American director (and before Batman Forever sealed his place in the upper reaches of the Hollywood hierarchy), Schumacher decided to see Broadway's newest hit, The Phantom of the Opera. Even before he got the chance, Andrew Lloyd Webber, its composer, called him and mentioned that he wanted to bring the play to the big screen. "Every director in Hollywood wanted to do it," Schumacher recalls. "Because this was already the biggest show in the world."


Then he saw it and got hooked. *spoilers- highlight to read* Just the storyline — a deformed composer who lives beneath the Paris Opera House and becomes obsessed with a young singer — transfixed him. In the darkness of Broadway's Majestic Theater, at the climax when the Phantom threatens to kill the girl's lover unless she stays with him, Schumacher had an epiphany. "She kisses him. And then — I don't know who came up with this but it was incredible — she kisses him again. And he can't take it because he realizes what a sacrifice she's making. That second kiss is too much for him. And I sat up in my seat and thought, 'That's a great movie moment.' Suddenly I knew how to make this film."

Sixteen years later, that vision is finally reaching completion on the set at London's Pinewood Studios, *spoilers*where the ingenue, Christine, and her beloved Raoul are pledging their noisy passion on a make-believe rooftop of the Paris Opera. Fake snow swirls, and an orchestra assaults the eardrums. Amid the chaos, Schumacher appears relaxed, even louche, as he watches the action through his monitor. He's having a good time. And he's just one of many directors out to revive the movie musical — a trend that began when Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge squeaked out a small profit in 2001, and gathered steam a year later when Rob Marshall's Chicago grossed over $170 million in the U.S. and bagged six Oscars. "Movie musicals went out of fashion for a long time," says Schumacher, "but finally it looks like they're coming back."

Harvey Weinstein certainly thinks so. In the past year, the Miramax boss (his studio was behind Chicago) has gobbled up the rights to such old-school classics as Damn Yankees, Guys and Dolls and Pippin. American Beauty director Sam Mendes has announced plans to shoot Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. Mel Brooks is set to roll on his movie turned musical turned movie, The Producers. Chris Columbus has signed on for Rent, and there are plans for big-screen versions of Bombay Dreams, Urinetown and Hairspray.

Chicago cloaked its musical yearnings by having its song-and-dance numbers take place in a character's mind. Moulin used pop hits by Elton John and David Bowie. But Phantom will make no excuses for being a full-blown, 143-minute rock opera that's more opera than rock. If audiences respond, Lloyd Webber says he will begin filming his considerable back catalog, starting with 1993's Sunset Boulevard. And if Phantom fails? The trend could dry up and blow away.

So far, the omens haven't been good. Schumacher was set to direct Phantom in 1990, with the stage show's original stars Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, who was then married to Lloyd Webber. When they divorced, the film fell apart, and despite rumors casting various stars in the main roles — Antonio Banderas, John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Keira Knightly — Warner Bros., which held the screen rights, dithered. Meanwhile, the producers of the stage show, who were overseeing its 22-country rollout, worried about killing theater trade if the film was bad. When Lloyd Webber's Evita barely turned a profit in 1996, Phantom seemed doomed.
But in 2002, Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group bought back the rights from Warner Bros., raised the $80 million budget itself, and brought back Schumacher. By then, more than 70 million people had seen the show, which had grossed more than $2.4 billion and ranked as the world's highest-earning piece of live entertainment. "If half of the people who've seen the show see the film," says executive producer Austin Shaw, "it will gross $350 million. And what about the 2.9 billion people who haven't seen it?"

Such confidence might explain the decision not to cast big names in the lead roles. Moulin Rouge had Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman; Chicago had Renee Zellwegger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere; Phantom has 18-year-old Emmy Rossum (The Day After Tomorrow) and Scott Gerard Butler, 35, best known for 2003's Tomb Raider sequel. The only name is Minnie Driver, who is less than hot these days and has a cameo as the jealous opera diva Carlotta.

Although Phantom has kept salaries low by casting virtual unknowns, its $80 million budget puts it between Alien vs. Predator and The Incredibles. An ensemble of 100-plus sings and dances through Schumacher's enormous, immaculately designed soundstages. *spoilers* In addition to the roof set, where stone gargoyles gaze down malevolently, there's the Phantom's Lair — a dark catacomb where the deformed genius composes on his grand piano to the steady accompaniment of water dripping into a stagnant, green pond. The space, illuminated by hundreds of candles, was so humid that Butler compares it to an enormous microwave. "I wear prosthetics on my face, which melt if it gets too hot," he says. "That takes five hours to put on, so if it gets too warm, the whole day stops and we start again." In the next studio under a musty cover resides the film's most expensive prop — the 5.2-m-high chandelier, which the Phantom famously drops on the opera-house audience. Weighing in at 2.2 tons, with three tiers of 20,000 crystals, it's valued at $1.25 million. Schumacher says he enjoys the epic scale. "It's got to be big." he says. "The story is all about shadow and light; it's a dark, obsessional love story in the Paris of 1870. It has to be opulent and voluptuous and beautiful. That's what's cinematic about the musical."


Click the link above for the full article ***more spoilers included***