It’s been almost 12 years since the release of “Les Misérables,” Tom Hooper’s adaptation of the hit musical and a triumphant follow-up to the director’s 2010 Oscars-dominating smash hit “The King’s Speech.” It was a film that earned more than $442 million globally and saw Anne Hathaway famously declare “it came true” after winning the Academy Award for best supporting actress.
It’s also been almost five years since Hooper’s most recent feature, “Cats,” an expensive adaptation of another hit musical that didn’t quite land with the same splash.
But as a remastered “Les Misérables” heads back to U.K. cinemas in time for Valentine’s Day (in the U.S. it’s scheduled for Feb.23), Hooper hints to PvNew that he’s ready to return to feature filmmaking, with several projects nearing.
“I’m certainly quite close on a couple of things,” he explains. “I’ve been busy. I’m very happy to get back behind the camera.”
Since “Cats,” which Hooper hasn’t widely discussed since its release, the director has mostly focused on commercial work (recent clients include Vodafone, McDonald’s, Santander and Vanish). But he admits that going back in the studio for the remastering of “Les Misérables” has made him want to get behind the camera once again for another movie.
“Particularly for the big screen,” he says. “And when you’re a parent and you end up watching a lot of films not on the big screen, you’re reminded what an incredibly powerful medium it is.”
Remixed and remastered in Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, the new version of “Les Misérables” gives “people who remember it from its original release the chance to see it in this fresh way,” Hooper says. “And hopefully it gives a whole new audience of people who haven’t seen it on the big screen the chance to experience it the right way, as in not on a phone.”
Dolby Atmos, he says is particular good with musicals such as “Les Mis,” as it helps “spread the orchestra” around the viewer, creating a “far more immersive, high quality musical experience” and offering the “musical equivalent of a wide shot.” For Hooper, using the technology is “weird,” because “you think it sounds better than when you recorded it at the time, which obviously can’t be true.”
Dolby Vision, meanwhile, he says helps with the many night scenes in “Les Mis,” presenting an “actual black” that normal cinemas can’t cope with (most show gray instead). “So it really made those sequences a lot richer and anchored in something that feels more real,” he says.
Alongside giving his film a new lick of paint with the latest audio and visual technologies, Hooper admits returning to “Les Mis” was an emotional experience. He recalls working on the original with his co-screenwriter Claude-Michel Schönberg and discussing a passage in Victor Hugo’s novel about the “incredible power of parental love.” More than 10 years on and now a father himself, Hooper says he understands the power that they were talking about.
“So I was very moved to go back to it and realize that I was onto something that I couldn’t possibly have known about,” he says.
