I LOVE Les Miserables. Both the novel and the musical. In a very, very personal way. In the way you love something for what you associate it with the first time you read it or see it, and what that meant to you,  and how that meaning evolves. Les Miserables is not A Prayer For Owen Meany. You don’t love it as a young adult and hate it in your 30s. Les Miserables is a pain in the ass when you read it in French as a 15 year old for class, wonderful when you do it again on your own two years later, and better and better as you get older and learn what truly qualifies as timeless.

So, yeah, they’re making a movie.

Based on the book and the musical. Tom Hooper who just won an Oscar for The King’s Speech is working on it.

Hugh Jackman is Jean Valjean. (I wonder if Guy Pearce can sing. Because, though I adore Hugh so much, Guy would be my first choice.) Russell Crowe is Javert. I love this. You know that rant he went on on Twitter earlier this year about circumcision?  That’s what I expect him to bring to this role. Very interested to see how he plays the suicide.

Today they announced that Anne Hathaway has been confirmed as Fantine. For weeks there was talk that she was close to signing. It’s an understandable choice. Anne can, as we know, sing very well. It’s just... I mean... she’ll have to get to a very different place if she’s to be convincing as Fantine, you know? It’s not just cosmetic either. This is a woman who has been failed by life and goes to her end assuming that that’s the only conclusion she could meet after meeting every horrible challenge with resilience and determination. From promise to defeat, it’s an amazingly comprehensive role, much more complicated than Rachel Getting Married. Everyone always points to Rachel Getting Married as her connection to the darkness but I was more impressed by Rosemarie DeWitt in that film than anyone else. Look, you know I’m more of an Anne Hathaway apologist than the next person, I just don’t know if I buy her as Fantine. Many of you don’t know if you buy her as Catwoman. Next year she’ll be Fantine AND Catwoman.

Les Miserables is scheduled to begin shooting in February for a December 2012 release.

Attached - Anne in Hollywood yesterday with her boyfriend Adam Shulman, Hugh heading out for his workout today in New York, and Russell Crowe in Vancouver on Sunday.

Source