Les Miserables and trademarks

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Les Miserables is a public domain book. It is also the basis of numerous unofficial sequels. And dozens of movies...

...and at least six different plays!

One of those plays is a very successful musical. The producers of the musical have trademarked the music, lyrics, images, font, etc., for use with their musical. They can legally stop anyone from using the music, lyrics, images or font. They can stop anyone making another musical. But they cannot stop people using the book to write their own plays or movies or games, as long as they look nothing like the musical.

I have actually never seen the musical, though like most people I have seen the promotional material and enjoyed the music on CD. To avoid any confusion I have made this game as different as possible:

¡	It is subtitled "the game of the book" so nobody can be in any doubt.
¡	It differs as much as possible from the musical (without straying too far from the book.) For example:
¡	It features characters like Mabeuf and Gillenormand and the nuns, people who do not appear in the musical.
¡	The characterization is more like the book: Valjean is not such an appealing character (at least at first); he does not particularly like Marius; Thenardier is not a lovable rogue; the young men are not heroes.
¡	The musical uses dark backgrounds, so the game uses plenty of white.
¡	The musical uses an antique font, so the game uses a modern font.
¡	The musical has small scenes that will fit on a stage, so the game has wide open spaces.
¡	The musical stands alone, the game is the first story in a much larger collection.
¡	And so on.

For more about other non-musical adaptations, select one:

The sequels
   
The plays    

The movies    

Other adaptations