It's time for a new Phantom of the Opera...

[enyawd72]

Of all the classic movie monsters, it seems only the Phantom has yet to be remade.

I would really love to see a faithful adaption of Leroux's story with a truly deformed, skull like Phantom ala Lon Chaney.
I'm just sick to death of the Andrew Lloyd Webber version. It seems to be all that people associate with the Phantom anymore.The film version of it was even worse. Gerard Butler looked like a male model with a rash on one side of his face. Hardly bad enough to have to live in the Paris sewers.

A new version of the Chaney film could be a masterpiece if done right. I think the Phantom needs to be somewhat older...a man in his late forties.

[PNGwynne]

Well Dwayne, you know this is a subject near and dear to me. I couldn't agree more.

I enjoy the musical for what it is, but Schumacher mucked the film in key areas, as he did with Batman. The musical is actually, plot-wise, a nice streamlining of the novel.

The novel is lurid, melodramatic, and romantic. I'd like to see a new film too, and I think your suggestions are apt. The challenge with remaking it in the Chaney mold is that Chaney is so iconic. I think a good teaser/prologue/montage would help establish Erik's complex back-story to a new audience.

[Werewolf]

I enjoy the musical for what it is, but Schumacher mucked the film in key areas, as he did with Batman. The musical is actually, plot-wise, a nice streamlining of the novel.

I'm not a big fan of musicals, in general, and I totally agree. The musical is actually one of the closer adaptions of the book. The Schumacher movie adaption is just really, really, really bad.

Now, the Nightwish cover of Phantom of the Opera is awesome.