Update: Reps for the film tell us that "Les Miserables" runs 2 hours and 30 minutes without credits.
Despite his consistently surprising/worrying technological tweaks to the LOTR franchise with “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” Peter Jackson was nonetheless able to finally fit audience expectation with news that the first installment would run close to three hours. However, it seems this holiday season will require more perfectly timed bathroom breaks and comfy seats than initially realized, as another high-profile blockbuster has been touted to run near the 180-minute mark.
After the “I Dreamed a Dream”-centered trailer featuring Anne Hathaway hinted at a faithfully drawn adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic, “Les Misérables,” news that the film will now run over three hours only lends to director Tom Hooper's all-inclusive narrative direction. Variety's Jeff Sneider recently caught wind of the news on Twitter, and aside from talk regarding the film's length, he also commented that the studio “has no plans to cut it down.”
Hooper has so far been one to keep his films trim — both “The King's Speech” and “The Damned United” could've easily been let loose to a bloated running time — and so the notion that “Les Misérables” will keep its extended length could point to a greater confidence in the material. He's certainly got the right cast behind him with Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne and Samantha Barks singing the stage musical's signature tunes alongside Hathaway, who incidentally just performed a stage revue last night to great notices. We'll see if Hooper can achieve the same when “Les Misérables” is released on Christmas Day.
