And, in 2004, the world was presented with The Phantom of the Opera (film), starring Gerard Butler as the Phantom, Emmy Rossum as Christine, and Patrick Wilson as Raoul. Until, at some point in the early 2000s, more than a decade after the show had peaked and long after it had moved from ‘amazing stage spectacular’ to ‘thing your weird cousin is still really into’ The Phantom of the Opera was finally green-lit.

His name is so synonymous with the gaudy excesses of the post-Burton Batman films, however, that even now, twenty years later, they’re probably what he’s still known best for.Īnd all that time the film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera bubbled away on the back-burner. Shumacher’s post Batman & Robin films were smaller, less bombastic affairs, and he never again reached the heights of his mid-90s fame. Which did well enough, despite ‘lukewarm’ critical reception, that he was brought back for the franchise-disembowelling Batman & Robin. Schumacher went from The Lost Boys to Falling Down to The Client to… Batman Forever. Brightman and Crawford moved on with their careers. Originating stars Sarah Brightman, who was married to Lloyd Webber, and Michael Crawford agreed to reprise their roles.Īnd then Brightman and Webber filed for divorce, and the project never got off the ground. (Michael Jackson approached him about playing the Phantom, apparently.) The film rights finally went in 1989, with a young filmmaker signed on to direct – Webber had seen The Lost Boys and been impressed with how the director used music in the film, and so the young auteur Joel Schumacher tied himself to the project. Given the immediate and spectacular success of Phantom, creator Andrew Lloyd Webber, for obvious reasons, began thinking about a film adaptation right away. The Phantom of the Opera is one other thing, however. Having clocked an estimated $5.6 billion in revenue in the last 30 years, The Phantom of the Opera is considered ‘the most financially successful entertainment to date.’

It has won a million awards, is the longest running play in Broadway history, the second-longest running West End musical and its soundtrack has gone four-times platinum. More than 130 million people have seen The Phantom of the Opera on stage since it first opened in London in 1986.

Raoul phantom of the opera 2004