Anne Hathaway Joins Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe in Les Miserables Film

Confirming earlier speculation, producer Cameron Mackintosh told BBC Radio on October 17 that Anne Hathaway will star as Fantine opposite Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean and Russell Crowe as Javert in a big screen adaptation of Les Miserables. The film, directed by Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), has set a release date of December 7, 2012.

According to Mackintosh, who revealed he had been hoping to make a film of Les Miserables since it opened on Broadway in 1987, casting is underway for the rest of the roles in the film, with shooting scheduled to begin in March 2012.

Hathaway certainly has the musical chops to play the tragic Fantine, having starred in the City Center Encores! production of Carnival and Paper Mill Playhouse productions of Jane Eyre, Gigi and Once Upon a Mattress. She starred as Viola in the 2009 Central Park production of Twelfth Night, as well as in films like Rachel Getting Married, One Day, Love and Other Drugs, Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada and Get Smart.

Les Miserables features a score by Claude-Michel Schonberg, book by Schonberg and Alain Boubil and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. The film will have a script by Oscar-nominated screenwriter William Nicholson and is being produced by Mackintosh, along with Working Title films, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.