Calling all show tune and Anne Hathaway lovers – The Hollywood Reporter reports that the Oscar nominee and LGBT ally has been cast as Fantine in the latest iteration of Les Misérables., a big screen musical based on the smash hit stage version that's based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 tome that revolves around student uprisings in 1830’s France.
The novel, with it’s timeless story about Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister’s starving children, has spawned dozens of films beginning as early as 1909. The latest big screen version that played in American cinemas was a 1998 film that starred Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman and Claire Danes.
But the upcoming 2012 film appears to be the only big screen version based on the beloved musical that opened in London's West End in 1985. Tom Hooper, who directed the Oscar winning The King's Speech and the HBO mini series John Adams, is slated to direct the film that stars Hugh Jackman as Valjean, Russell Crowe as Inspector Javert and Helena Bonham as the innkeeper’s wife Madame Thenardier.
Hathaway joins a list of heavy hitters including Patti Lupone, Randy Graff, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Lea Salonga, who’ve played Fantine, a woman who resorts to prostitution to save her daughter and who of course sings the early showstopper “I Dreamed a Dream.”
Hathaway, who became a star in films like The Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted, proved she knows her way around a show tune when she parodied Les Miz's “On MY Own” while hosting the 2011 Oscars. This marks the second time in recent history that Hathaway has landed a highly coveted role. She also landed the role of Catwoman in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises.
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