Hugh Jackman Slips Casting Details For 'Les Miserables': Crowe, Hathaway on Board

Mr. Versatility himself, Hugh Jackman, has some details to drop regarding the coming-together-quickly screen version of Claude Michel Schonberg's musical "Les Miserable" and what they point to looks intriguing.

Jackman recently told the U.K. Daily Mail not just who will fill key lead roles, but who won't be gracing the production with their presences. Consider "in," he says? Fellow musically-inclined-but-macho leading man Russell Crowe will be playing Javert, the French Inspector who tracks Jackman's Jean Valjean's every move following Valjean's parole from prison for theft. Anne Hathaway will portray Fatine, a destitute employee of a factory owned by Valjean some time after his parole whose death leaves her young daughter Cosette first orphaned, then eventually in Valjean's care.

Helena Bonham Carter - no stranger to screen musicals after her turn in Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street" - is in talks to play Madame Thernadier, one half of the pair from whom Valjean buys Cosette, but hasn't yet signed anything official.

There had been talks of a most interesting possible pairing of Carter with a previous co-star. Rumors had Carter's "Harry Potter" castmate Emma Watson coming on-board as Cosette, but Jackman told the Daily Mail she won't be joining the production after all.

Jackman himself has multiple Broadway accolades taking up mantle space, including 2004 Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Theater World awards, all for portraying 1970s singer-songwriter Peter Allen in "The Boy From Oz." Of course, American audiences know him better for bringing to life Marvel Comics icon Wolverine in "X-Men," "X2: X-Men United," "X-Men: The Last Stand," "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and soon enough, a "Wolverine" sequel. He's also one of a very, very precious few who can say that he's hosted the Tony Awards, Academy Awards and made a special guest appearance on "WWE Monday Night Raw."

Seriously, I'm a 2-plus-year wrestling fan, and I can't name one other celebrity that's pulled that triple-crown off.

For all his triple-threat prowess as dancer, singer and thespian, Jackman claims that whether the silver-screen musical will feature authentic actor performances or lip-syncs is completely out of his hands - though he did express a preference.

"There's the option of recording live or lip-synching," Jackman said. "And I've been down the lip-synching route with the video of Oklahoma! I think singing live might work better with this, but Tom [Hooper] won't make a decision just yet."

The musical based on Victor Hugo's 1862 novel of the same name premiered on Broadway in 1987 and has played 7,176 total Broadway shows (counting its original production's 6,680 plus revival shows), but this will mark the fith time any rendition of Hugo's "Les Miserables" has been brought to the big screen and the first attempt for the musical. The most recent version was 1998 film starring Claire Danes, Liam Neeson, Uma Thurman and Geoffrey Rush that enjoys a 76% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

But as Geordi LaForge told me all the time on PBS as a kid, "You don't have to take my word for it." Have a lesson in "Les Miserables" 101 from Nostalgia Chick and her friends from Thatguywiththeglasses.com ....