UPDATED: First Photos Emerge From Early 'Les Miserables' Shooting

Tom Hooper's "Les Miserables" started shooting earlier this month, and a photo has already emerged revealing our relentless Inspector Javert.

"Gladiator" Oscar-winner Russell Crowe places the French lawman tasked with trailing Jean Valjean (played by Hugh Jackman), the once-incarcerated thief and breaker of a window pane who's broken his parole along his way to rebuilding his life. As he seeks out Valjean, Javert becomes not so much relentless, as consumed with bringing Valjean to justice amid the backdrop of France's 1832 June Rebellion.

Victor Hugo's classic novel has been given the big-screen treatment before - most recently, a 1998 Billie August-directed feature starring Liam Neeson as Valjean and Geoffrey Rush as Javert - but this will be the first time that the hit Broadway musical rendition has been adapted. The Claud-Michel Schonberg play debuted in Paris in 1980, and embarked on a 2010 25th anniversary concert tour.

In addition to Jackman and Crowe, the cast also boasts Anne Hathaway as ill-fated factory worker, single mother and eventual prostitute Fantine; Amanda Seyfried as her daughter, Cosette; Eddie Redmayne as student revolutionary Marius; Samantha Barks as Eponine, the friend who pines for him; and Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as unscrupulous innkeeper Thenardier and his wife.

"Les Miserables" hits theaters everywhere Dec. 14, 2012 - making this one very tightly scheduled shoot.

UPDATE - March 27, 2012: Hugh Jackman Monday night tweeted an additional photo of himself as a very bearded Jean Valjean...