Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler star as Christine and The Phantom, while Patrick Wilson, recently of HBO's Angels in America, and Minnie Driver appear as Raoul and Carlotta. The stage production, which transferred from London, made stars out of original cast members Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford. The Broadway production has been playing at the Majestic Theatre since Jan. 26, 1988. As of Feb. 22, Phantom had played 6,701 performances at the Majestic, making it the second-longest running show in Broadway history, behind Lloyd Webber's Cats which played 7,485 before closing.

The movie was stalled at Warner Brothers for nearly a decade until Lloyd Webber bought back the production rights and independently produced the film, retaining Warner Brothers as the distributor in conjunction with the buy-back deal. Over the years, a long list of actors were mentioned to play the title character including Antonio Banderas, John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, and Michael Crawford.

The long-awaited film adaptation is scheduled to go into limited release in the United States on Dec. 4.