Does the "Les Miserables" casting make you giddy with joy - or downright miserable?

I just learned that Eddie Redmayne, fresh from receiving a ton of critical acclaim for playing the production assistant who gets very, very friendly with Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn, has been cast as Marius in Les Miserables.  Redmayne (Does he have naturally red hair, I wonder? Is this a stage name? Is he part Indian?) joins Hugh Jackman as Valjean, (someone I know thinks Jackman is far too young and sent me a slew of pictures of past Bway actors who've played the role to prove it) Russell Crowe as Inspector Javert and Anne Hathaway as Fantine. Tom Hooper (he helmed The King's Speech) is directing. I guess everyone's very confident about the material because the studio - Universal - is planning on a December 7, 2012 release date, all so that the film can be Oscar-eligable.

William Nicholson, who penned Gladiator, wrote the script and the music is by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil. They don't start shooting until March, presumably will have decided by then whether to shoot in 3-D or not. Like it or not, it does seem as though 3D is here to stay.

Found an interview with Hugh Jackman at Collider.com who says he had to endure a 3 hour audition for the part!
That blows me away since Hugh is such a triple threat, actor, singer, dancer. We've seen him act and we all saw him on the Academy Awards - what's to audition?!

“We shoot in March.  I am going in the next couple of weeks to do my first tests there.  I auditioned for it and had about a 3-hour audition for it about 3 months ago.  I’m really pumped about doing this.  I’ve done a lot of musicals and I’ve done a lot of movies, so this feels like something that I’ve been waiting to do.”
And had this to say about possibly shooting in 3D 
"I think [Hooper’s] basically gonna do it, screen it, look at it, and see if it adds something genuinely or not.  I mean, the strength of Les Mis is in its characters and the emotion, so if it aids that, fantastic. If it doesn’t I’m sure we won’t.  It is not like there are massive special effects in Les Mis, you know?”
When asked about his favorite songs
“Who Am I? I love.  That’s a great one.  Bring Him Home is great.  Both of those songs are mine.  God, I don’t think there is a bad song in that whole piece.”
I can't wait for some set photos to come out but with a start date of March that's a long time coming!