Russell Crowe in talks for Tom Hooper's Les Misrables

By Matt Maytum
published

Helena Bonham Carter also looking to join musical adaptation

According to The Hollywood Reporter , Russell Crowe and Helena Bonham Carter are set to join Hugh Jackman in Les Misérables .

The two stars are said to be negotiations to join the project, which adapts Victor Hugo's novel via the famous musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg.

Crowe's up for the role of policeman Javert, who doggedly pursues Jackman's Jean '24601' Valjean throughout the story, set in 19th-Century France.

Russ is no stranger to banging out a tune with his band 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts.

Bonham Carter is up for the role of Mme Thénardier, one half of the story's villainous coupling of scummy innkeepers. After her grottily melodic turn in Sweeney Todd , this sounds like welcome casting to us.

She won a Bafta for her role as Queen Elizabeth in The King's Speech , so it isn't surprising that she and Hooper are keen to collaborate again.

Tom Hooper seems to be cashing in on his post- King's Speech heat to score a heck of a cast for this Les Mis , and by the looks of it, he might be setting his sights on Oscar glory again.

Matt Maytum
Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.