Picture Of Butler As 'The Phantom Of The Opera'


Warner Bros. have released a picture from the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera, please click on the image for a larger view.

Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler
Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler


Emmy Rossum (Mystic River) and Gerard Butler (Timeline) star with Patrick Wilson (HBO's Angels in America) who plays the dashing Raoul.

USAToday featured an article with Joel Schumacher who is helming the project.

Schumacher was first asked to helm the romantic musical 15 years ago. When the offer came around again, Schumacher met Webber and said, "If you still want me, I'd love to do it, but on one condition: with a very young, sexy cast. And he said, 'I have a condition: The three leads have to be good singers.' "

"Michael Crawford is now 65," Schumacher says. "Emmy Rossum just turned 17 and has been singing at the Metropolitan Opera since she was 7. To find three gorgeous people who could act and sing, well, we did it."

Can any movie match the stage production's extravagant theatricality? "Phantom has its own life," says Schumacher, who in Pinewood Studios has created a fictitious Paris Opera to house the Phantom's underground, canal-like lair.

As for an overprotective Webber hovering over his shoulder during filming, which concludes in early January, that never happened. "Andrew will be the first person to tell you he's not a film person. He's re-orchestrating it, he's written a new song for the Phantom, and he's looking forward to polishing the sound of the film."

The Phantom of the Operan is to be released late December 2004.

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