Back when I did a six month check-in on the Vincent Cassel’s Quasimodo project, I was HOPING that the casting would be announced and at that time I didn’t see any aside from an AI overview, which I have a healthy scepticism for. And again, at that time, I wanted to see if there was any truth to the info that AI was giving but when I tried to go back it didn’t offer up that same info. So I didn’t really go into that much other some speculation based on the stunt woman credits. (I hate AI.)
In a new interview with People, Alan Menken breakdowns some of his most iconic Disney songs with some behind the scene tidbits.
Alan Menken as the piano, People Interview
The song that were covered in this interview include:
“Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid
“Beauty and the Beast” from Beauty and the Beast
“Proud of Your Boy” from Aladdin (cut from the film but added to the Musical)
“A Whole New World” from Aladdin
“Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas
“Out There” from The Hunchback of Notre Dame
“Go the Distance” from Hercules
So four I want Songs (counting Proud of your Boy,) three romantic songs and “Colors of the Wind” which doesn’t seem to fit snuggly into a musical song category and is regarded as ballad.
(An Overview of the big new pieces for Hunchback of 2025)
The post I had originally wanted to do for today was proving more daunting plus with some end-of-the-year time restrictions and the fact that I didn’t want to rush it, I’m rescheduling that one*.
Hunchback News Items for 2025
So let’s do an end of the year News round up…which is more fitting for the end of the year.
Fun Fact this upcoming version is the 2nd time Netflix has produced a Hunchback version but that other 2018 Idris Elba led version was canceled.
Vincent Cassel to play a version of Quasimodo in a Netflix produced movie
Anyway
It’s been about six months since it was first announced that there was to be a new movie adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame starting Vincent Cassel as Quasimodo. Well in a way since this version is more based on the “historical” Quasimodo who was said to have inspired Victor Hugo.
Anyway it’s been six months so what more do we know about this movie?
Vincent Cassel to play Quasimodo in a Netflix Re-Telling….
Vincent Cassel
Well, Well, Well, looks like Netflix is up to it again, they announced another Hunchback movie. For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember, this is the second time that Netflix has announced Hunchback adaptation, the first being in 2018 with Idris Elba as the lead with a modern setting.
This time we have Vincent Cassel taking the title role as Quasimodo. However instead of a by the book retelling according to Deadline they are doing a “retelling of the life of Quasimodo, the man said to have inspired Victor Hugo’s bell-ringer in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” and the log line is “Set in Paris on the eve of the July Revolution (1830), this film reimagines the life of the man said to have inspired Victor Hugo’s iconic character, Quasimodo. As the cholera epidemic spreads through the city, he’s caught between political turmoil and an impossible love.”
Back in 2010 it was reported that the inspiration for Quasimodo was a stone craver whose nickname was “le bossu.” So is Cassel going to play a dual role as the Quasimodo the bell-ringer of Hugo’s novel and the historical stone craver? We shall see.
A Pandemic?
Also another just nitpick is the presence of cholera. It’s true that cholera was pandemic of the time but they are rushing the timeline of it in Paris to coincide with Hugo working on the novel. It’s could be forgiven if there is a compelling reason. But what thematic basis is for the inclusion of a pandemic with the themes of novel? Again we shall see.
Is this Miscast?
Vincent Cassel
Then there is Cassel himself. While he is a competent actor, it’s disappointing to see cast him as Quasimodo. He has the right look and presence to play Frollo. While I do concede that traditionally 58 isn’t exactly “too old” to play the role Quasimodo as Quasimodo’s actors average age is 43, with the inclusion Steve Lemme from “Quasi!” which I’m loathed to include in the data points and 41 without, Cassel is defiantly at the older range of the actors who have played the role.
Also I concede that it doesn’t really matter whether his looks matter since he will most likely be in prosthetics so it’s a moot point. Still it’s a little disappointing of casting choice since Quasimodo is seldom ever played by a younger performer as in the book he is around 20 years old. And if you want to get even more exact, he’s most likely 19 years old. During his trial (Book Six, Chapter One) Quasimodo says that believes he will be 20 on Saint Martins’ Day which is November 11th and the events of novel are roughly between January to July of 1482. But that is a colossal nitpick.
Liberty on Liberties
So it looks this version is going to take a lot of liberties with the story both figuratively and historically in effort to differentiate itself from the other versions. Even though it’s following the trend of naming the movie after Quasimodo much like the two other odd takes that have come before it, 1999’s “Quasimodo d’El Paris” and 2023’s “Quasi!”
Since 2010 there have been eight Hunchback movie productions to get announced. Only one got made and released and that was only nominally a version and technically shouldn’t even count. This is the ninth Hunchback version to be announced so again we shall see if this THE version that gets released and is marginally good. So far my expectations are quite low. But on the plus side, Content!
Any thoughts or feeling on this news? Are you Happy with the casting of Vincent Cassel as Quasimodo?
Dreamworks has now entered the Live-action Remake game with their version of 2010’s How to Train your Dragon.
Let’s start with what is “good” about this teaser, Toothless looks great and Toothless was a highlight of the original. Toothless looking the same however points to choice that was made by the studio, that this live-action remake is near shot-for shot remake of the original version. Doing a carbon-copy in a new medium is a choice. A choice that suggests that the studio just a wants to make money. The studio knows that this franchise makes money but they exhausted it so they need to do again. So they took a page from the Mouse and did the same this with actors. Gerald Butler is even reprising his role.
In addition to shedding light on the creative bankruptcy of the movie industry, live-action remakes under-cut the art of animation by implying that the better and improved work is the live-action version. After all live-action movies win more accolades ergo are more valuable to the industry. An animated movie will only win a few tech categories and never the top awards. In Hollywood, only three have ever been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and no wins. However the oscars are seldom the best metric for “best” movies and there is a long history of politics with the academy award wins. Also the academy sequesters animated movies to their own category so they don’t have to recognize animated movies on level with the “prestige pictures.”
It’s hard to really tell from a teaser trailer if this version is just a cash-grab from corporation that wants people to go their theme parks that just so happens to have a lot of How to Train your Train IP with lots of merchandise to buy or if there is a legit good reimagining here that can only be achieved with live actors. Personally I think it’s the former, the original movie is still great.
In honor of the 30th anniversary of Disney Theatrical Productions, you can listen to the Disney’s 30 Years On Broadway” special right now via the SiriusXM app. There are also interviews. Hunchback is also included as it is part of the Theatricals even through it didn’t make the move to Broadway but it has a great existence in Regionals as well as international productions. Read more about the Special here.
Also Notre Dame has its bells ringing again and it’s ready for its December opening. So that’s at least some good news.
Sadly trailblazing ballerina, Michaela DePrince, passed away on September 10th 2024, at the age of 29. In 2021 she joined the Boston Ballet as the second soloist. She was previously the soloist of the Dutch National Ballet. You can read more about her here.
In 2009 at the age of thirteen she performed the La Esmeralda Variation at YAGP Philadelphia, PA semi-finals. This solo is very popular amongst ballerinas and she performed the piece marvelously.
She was truly a talented and inspiring person who made a huge impact in the short time she had on this Earth.
As part of the opening ceremonies for Paris 2024 Olympics many cultural significant French references were depicted as part of the festivities. One was a lone figure holding on to the spire of Notre Dame with a stylized hunch on their back. Clearly meant to represent the Bell-ringer, Quasimodo.
An homage to Quasimodo, Paris 2024 Olympics, Opening Ceremony
You can a video of it here so you enjoy all the references, like A trip to the Moon, Le Petit Prince and Assassin’s Creed.
On April 4th 2024, Doja Cat dropped a new album. The album is a deluxe edition for her 2023 album “Scarlet”
According to Doja Cat, the album’s name references the antagonist Claude Frollo from Victor Hugo’s novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.” Also adding “The name of the deluxe edition serves as a metaphor that represents the pressures creatives face in the music industry — much like the pressures Frollo imposed upon Esmerelda throughout Hugo’s novel.”
“Because he is like a… is he a tyrant? He’s like a… I feel like it connects to the story of Scarlet in some way. And if you look up his personality traits and who he is and his story, you’ll understand kind of the whole connection. There’s a control aspect, like he just abuses his power and his control and is just dogmatic and is just a total c*nt. And all Esmerelda wanted to do was just be creative and sing and dance, but nasty old Claude Frollo was just having a field day on her, just being awful and a bad guy, stinky man.
And this isn’t about anyone in… there’s not anything very personal happening to me with one person. Claude Frollo doesn’t depict a single person in my life. It’s like a metaphor for the people that creatives endure on a daily basis in a bigger picture, a bigger scale.”
I don’t think I would use the exact word “tyrant” to describe Frollo from the novel, Disney movie, yes, he is pretty much the de-facto king. This quote was taken from a podcast and was most likely an off-the-cuff word choice. The rest of what she says tracks and is on-point with her thesis of the music industry and the character from the novel.
All in all, it’s great to see a hunchback reference like this in the news.
