Anne Hathaway cast in Tom Hooper‘s Les Miserables with Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. Anne Hathaway joining Les Miserables (2012) with Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman puts to rest who will be playing the central characters in the film. Anne Hathaway will be playing the role of Fantine, Russell Crowe will play Inspector Javert, and Hugh Jackman will play Jean Valjean. Helena Bonham Carter will be playing Madame Thénardier and supposedly Geoffrey Rush is in talks to play Thénardier.
What producer Cameron Mackintosh said about the casting:
“I’d been hoping we could make a film on LES MISÉRABLES ever since it opened on Broadway…I’ve got a marvelous cast so far with Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, Russell Crowe as Javert and Anne Hathaway as Fantine,” producer Cameron Mackintosh told BBC Radio today. “We’re busy casting the rest of the parts.”
About the release of Toby Hooper’s Les Miserables:
Universal has set the picture for release in the center of next year’s Oscar race with a December 7, 2012 date. Cameron Mackintosh is producing with Working Title’s Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Debra Hayward. William Nicholson wrote the script and the music is by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain
About Les Misérables:
Les Misérables (literally “The Miserable Ones”; usually…French pronunciation: [le mize?abl(?)]), translated variously from the French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims), is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. It follows the lives and interactions of several French characters over a seventeen-year period in the early nineteenth century, starting in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion.
The novel focuses on the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption. It examines the nature of law and grace, and expatiates upon the history of France, architecture of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, antimonarchism, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love. The story is historical fiction because it contains factual and historic events. Contrary to what some believe, it does not use the French Revolution as a backdrop. The French Revolution took place in the eighteenth century; Les Miserables takes place in the nineteenth. The only “revolution” depicted is the June Rebellion, a student uprising.
For those unfamiliar with Les Misérables‘ main character:
Les Misérables contains many plots, but the main thread is the story of ex-convict, Jean Valjean (known by his prison number, 24601), who becomes a force for good in the world, but cannot escape his dark past.
Supposedly the film is going to be a musical and not a straight forward, hardcore film like the last major film adaptation of the story. The last film, released in 1998, starred Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman, and Claire Danes. I bought the book to read but didn’t realize there were two version of it: abridged and unabridged. I have the abridged version, the one that has been trimmed.
What do you think of a musical version of Les Misérables on film and Anne Hathaway joining that cast as Fantine?