THE GREATEST SHOWMAN: DeletedScenes/BehindTheScenes/Bloopers

[jo]

[jo]

http://instagram.com/p/BfwFTcQhq4X

[jo]

This will likely form part of the BluRay/DVD special features ?

[mamaleh]

These extras are great. I really do hope they are included on the Blu-rayDVD.

Ellen

[jo]

[jo]

Probably during rehearsals? Hugh never wore a beard during filming.

[jo]

More photos from official photographer Niko Tavernise --

http://instagram.com/p/Bf9XnIph5Lb

Presumably, this is for the reprise of THE GREATEST SHOW?

[jo]

http://instagram.com/p/BgEjIPVjFJc

[jo]

[carouselkathy]

Pre-ordering the DVD, but unsure if it includes commentary, out takes, etc. Sometimes you order DVDs and they release one with more features later. I don't have a Blue Ray player. Suggestions? Should I wait?

[jo]

Part of the publicity material released --



Hard to say if a director's commentary is included. However, it is supposed to include a 2-hour making-of-the-movie&behind-the-scenes.

Jo

[jo]

Those who have the DIGITAL version are sharing some of the special features --

That was Hugh after filming PAN (not after Les Miserables, when his next project was THE WOLVERINE), maybe right at the time of rehearsing for his new play, The River ( circa summer 2014).

Was he still filming LOGAN at this time ( another workshop?)?

[jo]

[jo]

[jo]

[jo]

Maybe we can also post the podcast ( Horowitz) here because they discuss a lot of things happening behind the scenes --

[jo]

Rehearsing THE OTHER SIDE --

[jo]

[jo]

Barnum's ballerina daughter - behind the scenes

[jo]

[jo]

www.imdb.com/title/tt1485796/mediaviewer/rm2140231936

Barnum hugging his two daughters while Charity looked on, as he was about to join Jenny Lind.

This was among the photo gallery on IMDB of THE GREATEST SHOWMAN.  I wonder why this was deleted from the movie. It would have presented a slightly different view of Barnum. As it was presented in the movie ( final version), Barnum seemed more heartless ( and driven by overwhelming ambition) because he seemed to have ignored his daughters as he joined Jenny Lind for the tour.  Maybe they wanted to strengthen the image that he had been too suffused with a desire to pursue his ambition to be seen "as more than he was...and impressing the carriage trade"?  With how it was in the final edit,  the scene of FROM NOW ON becomes even more poignant.


Jo

[jo]

Also from the Photo Gallery at IMDB --

www.imdb.com/title/tt1485796/mediaviewer/rm2106023680

This must be also from the finale workshop (Hugh is wearing the Global Citizen t-shirt) -- with the entire major cast shown on the two tables.

It seemed a lot more intimate in the two video clips released from the session ( From Now On/This Is Me)

[jo]

[jo]

Michael Gracey shares some behind-the-scenes aspects of the film-making project :

collider.com/michael-gracey-greatest-showman-interview/#james-mangold

Michael Gracey on ‘Greatest Showman’, James Mangold’s Contributions, ‘Rocketman’ and More
by Adam Chitwood April 9, 2018



One of the biggest hits of 2017 almost wasn’t a hit at all. When the Hugh Jackman-fronted original musical The Greatest Showman first hit theaters in mid-December, the opening weekend numbers were actually a bit rough. But a funny thing happened in the ensuing weeks—for two straight weekends the box office numbers went up, then the film was bringing in a steady stream of moviegoers through the end of January. Indeed, the first time the film’s weekend box office was less than its opening weekend was January 26th—a full month after the movie first hit theaters.

Now The Greatest Showman is a certified hit, amassing a passionate fanbase who sparked to the P.T. Barnum origin story with a big heart, eye-popping visuals, and tremendously catchy original songs. With the film now available on Digital HD and hitting Blu-ray and DVD on April 10th, I recently got the chance to speak with director Michael Gracey about the film. Greatest Showman marked Gracey’s directorial debut, and during our interview he got candid about how he felt opening weekend, his belief that the film would eventually find an audience, and working some A-list behind-the-scenes talent like cinematographer Seamus McGarvey and production designer Nathan Crowley on his very first movie.

Gracey also talks about the positive atmosphere on set, where the film’s major stars would show up simply to watch their co-stars’ big musical numbers and scenes, and he discussed filmmaker James Mangold’s contribution to the film when the studio got a bit nervous during post-production. As Gracey explains, Mangold offered some key guidance and wrote new pages for the movie’s reshoots. Additionally, Gracey provided an update on the live-action Naruto movie he’s attached to direct and the long-in-development Elton John biopic Rocketman.

Gracey’s enthusiasm and positive attitude is infectious, and Greatest Showman marked a pretty terrific debut for a filmmaker who no doubt has great things to come in his career ahead. Below, check out our full interview.



The movie’s huge, it feels like you almost made a hit Broadway musical that keeps going and going. But it wasn’t one of those movies that exploded right out of the gate, so I was curious how were you feeling opening weekend and when did you first realize this was huge?


MICHAEL GRACEY: Yeah it’s interesting, I mean obviously opening weekend was disappointing for everyone. Everyone was like, “Really?” We knew we were up against huge films going into the weekend—Star Wars, Jumanji, it was a blockbuster weekend to be releasing a film. But I was always very confident that it was all about word of mouth. I kind of feel like with a musical, there’s so few original musicals that people just don’t know what to expect. Even from the trailer there’s always this thing historically with musical trailers, “Do we show people scenes? Do we not show people scenes? We don’t want to distance the people who don’t like musicals.” It’s such a bizarre thing because the argument can be the people who like musicals are going anyway, so really you should be targeting the people who don’t like musicals and try to convince them that this is actually worthwhile for them to see. So I just think that it’s definitely one of those things that relied most on people seeing it and then saying to someone else, “I know you don’t like musicals, but you should check this out.”

As disastrous as the opening weekend was, I was sort of just holding my breath for the weeks afterwards. A lot of phone calls came in that weekend and there were a lot of panicked voices, and I was just saying, “Look, let’s give it a couple weeks. Let’s see what happens once people start talking about it.” Because I had such huge faith in the cast that we put together and the dedication that they put into the film. They did 10 weeks of rehearsals. That’s kind of unheard of today when you’re creating films, that you have big name stars committing to 10 weeks of rehearsals.

So I knew everyone involved was there for the right reasons, and I genuinely am such a big believer in the environment in which something was captured comes across onscreen. So it doesn’t matter how much people are smiling—if it’s a stressful environment where people are screaming and yelling sure people can smile when they call action, but you can see in their eyes that it’s false. You don’t believe it. And I think the opposite is true with The Greatest Showman.


The set was electric. Usually on a film set it’s making sure that everyone is there for their scene, and the moment their scene is over they disappear. But on this film set literally the stars would show up for each other’s musical numbers just to stand behind the camera and cheer and clap and shout. It was such an incredibly supportive environment and it was so magical. If you’re performing and you’ve got Hugh Jackman standing behind the camera applauding you after every take and shouting out and cheering, it just elevates everyone. It just was os magical, and I’m a very big believer that you see that in the end film. You see the joy in people’s faces when they’re performing, you see that excitement, you see that electricity.

So I was always like as long as enough people see the film on opening weekend and talk about it, more people will come. And thank goodness they did (laughs). To be honest, I also look at films that I grew up with like Dark Crystal and Labyrinth and for Jim Henson at the time they were flops in terms of their theatrical release, but they went on to become classics that people still buy to this day. So I also was very much like I really hope it finds an audience now, but if it doesn’t I genuinely do believe it will find an audience. Maybe it’s not in the first week, maybe it’s not in the third week, but at some point it will find an audience. And of course at the time you say that people they’re like, “It might not be on at the cinema in six weeks’ time” (laughs).




It definitely paid off and it definitely found an audience. I was also curious as a first-time filmmaker, what was it like working with a cinematographer like Seamus McGarvey or production designer like Nathan Crowley on your first film? That crew is insane.


GRACEY: You know when someone says to you, “What’s your dream crew to work with on your first film?” and you put down all the names of the people you’ve just revered and looked at their work and you go, “Well there’s no way I’m gonna get Seamus on my first film and there’s no way Nathan Crowley isn’t going to be doing a Chris Nolan film,” these are just my dream crew. Even down to Peter Kohn the first assistant director, Peter Kohn is literally the greatest First AD. He’s done everything from Birdman to the Pirates of the Caribbean films, he is such a big part of how I got to realize the film that we made. They were all my first choices and they all said yes, and as you said for a first-time director being surrounded with that depth of talent and daily inspiration, the stuff that those guys came up with and that they would offer up was incredible.


Even down to all of the exteriors in the film are these beautiful miniature shots, and it’s because of Nathan Crowley. We were told that we didn’t have the budget to do miniatures, he was like, “Listen Michael, go and buy six 3D printers and I’ve got 10 3D printers in the art department, and we’ll just print all the miniatures in the film, and then we’ll get the scenic artists who are already on the payroll to paint them for us.” And that is the only reason why all of those exterior shots in the film look so tactile and beautiful and hand-crafted, and that is one of a thousand suggestions that people who have that depth of talent and experience can just bring. So I feel so, so fortunate that team of people assembled. And for the musical numbers you’re basically dancing with the camera, you know the camera is as choreographed as the people in front of the camera. So having someone like Seamus who’s just all-in with finding a way to shoot it and just making it so poetic in terms of the way that he lights his scenes, it was such a privilege.



Then you have James Mangold, who came on during post-production. What did he bring to the project and what was it like having another filmmaker involved?


GRACEY: Yeah I mean that was amazing. I’m a big believer in bringing in other creative minds; I do it in my commercial work. On the film, we got to a stage where we hadn’t even finished the director’s cut and there was a lot of concern from the studio because it’s an expensive film and it’s a risky film. Fortunately Jim had just finished working with Hugh, and he came in and had a look at the film and I watched it with him and we had a round of ideas together of what it could be, then he got brought on officially to do some additional writing for the additional photography. Some of those scenes were scenes that were in the original script and then other scenes, particularly in the first act were scenes that—you know Jim pointed out really cleverly, he was like, “Listen, Barnum has a problem in the museum and he solves it in the same scene. We just have to separate that. Let’s write a little scene where he solves it two scenes later, just so we can live with that problem for more than 30 seconds.” It was just fantastic. Obviously he’s an incredible filmmaker and it was just wonderful to havesomeone like that to bounce ideas off of.



You also have some really interesting projects coming up. Is Naruto going to be your next film?


GRACEY: I don’t know, to be honest. You know Kishimoto, who created the original series, he’s just a genius. So many Hollywood adaptations of really popular manga series just don’t get it right, and for me what was really important was that if I was gonna do Naruto, I wanted to actually work with Kishimoto and get a script to a stage where he would look at it and be excited about realizing it. Because no one knows the world better than the person who created it.
So for me, as it stands, we’re still working on the script. Because until that script is at a level that I’m excited about, I have no interest in destroy an amazing franchise as has happened before. But I think the great thing is that everyone involved, from Lionsgate to the producers, are all of the same mind. Everyone knows how precious this property is and to me it’s incredibly exciting, and I love the work that I’ve gotten to do on it to date. At this stage, no one is going to go into production until we’ve got a script that excites everyone. So whether it’s my next one or not, I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see.



Another thing that you’ve been attached to for a long time is Rocketman. Is that still bubbling up? Is Taron Egerton still attached to play Elton John?

GRACEY: You know I love that project so much and I had such an incredible time working with Elton and Lee Hall on that script for six years. Again, I’m not sure what’s the latest on that. There was a period of time where I was on Showman and there was a lot of pressure to move forward on the project, so unfortunately I’m not sure what the latest is, but I will stay involved because I’m so fond of that story and of Elton and the incredible life that he lived. I think Lee Hall’s writing on it is just some of the most beautiful and poetic writing, so again I’m not sure whether that’s something I’m gonna do next, but it’s something that I would love to. It’s an incredible film.



Well congrats again on Greatest Showman, I’m really excited to see what you do next. The success of the film is very much deserved.


GRACEY: Oh thanks so much, Adam. So am I. Whatever it is, I think the exciting thing is like all filmmakers you talk to, the moment you finish a film it’s like I just wanna apply what I know now to what I do next. Again, I was so fortunate with the people that came together on this film and the lessons I learned doing a musical and a very specific kind of film. But the complexity of that, specifically the shooting complexity of that, is something that by the end you feel so confident and you just wanna go back and redo everything that you did at the start. You never get to do that on the film itself, but you get to apply all of that knowledge on the next one. So for me I very much look forward to that.

[jo]

Interesting insights on working with notable creative talent ( Oscar-nominated ones!) like Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey ( who usually teams up with Joe Wright -- as in PAN...and Anna Karenina/Atonement/TheAvengers/TheAccountant/etc.), Production designer Nathan Crowley ( who works with Chris Nolan, as in The Prestige...and Dunkirk/TheDarkKnight/Interstellar/Insommia/etc) and of course excellent filmmaker James Mangold ( who is also an Oscar-nominated screenwriter) who has worked in many genres and in 3 movies with Hugh ( Kate&Leopold/TheWolverine/Logan)!

Given the medium-sized budget of GREATEST SHOWMAN, how could a new director like Michael Gracey have gotten these prominent creative talent ( who have worked in blockbusters) to his team?

Hmm...there is a Hugh connection with all three! Maybe he helped MG recruit them. Hugh has also acted as uncredited producer for the movie.

Pasek&Paul were the discovery of Michael Gracey...and their Broadway connections helped in the workshop phases of the project to test the musical scores. He also brought in multi-awarded exec music producer Alex Lacamoire ( who has just won an Olivier for Hamilton) who accompanied Keala on the piano at the Oscars. Pasek&Paul also linked up Hugh with vocal coach Liz Caplan.

There is a lot of artistry involved ... and commitment to this project -- so the results are not surprising at all! As for the critics -- their silence now is deafining


Jo