Working Title is doing its very best to secure an A-list cast for the upcoming Les Miserables adaptation, leading with Hugh Jackman as Valjean.  It's On The Grid reported last week the studio is courting Russell Crowe for Javert, Geoffrey Rush for Thenardier, and Helena Bonham Carter for Madame Thenardier, respectively.  The site also identified Hayden Panettiere, Miranda Cosgrove, Lucy Hale, and Emma Watson as candidates to play Eponine and Cosette, and suggested Amy Adams and Rebecca Hall were up for the role of Fantine.  Make of all that what you will.  Sorry to do this so soon, but I have to make it more complicated.  Broadway World [via The Playlist] hears Anne Hathaway is set to play Fantine, at the recommendation of Jackman.Hathaway meets the aforementioned A-list requirement, and she sure can sing.  Of course she's on the list.  It remains to be seen if the rumor will lead anywhere, but it is believable that the role is Hathaway's if she wants it.  Director Tom Hooper (The King's Speech) is scheduled to shoot Les Miserables early next year, so we should receive a final cast list before the end of the year.  Read the synopsis of the Victor Hugo novel that led to the source musical after the jump. [Update: Entertainment Weekly confirms that Hathaway is in talks to play Fantine.]

Sensational, dramatic, packed with rich excitement and filled with the sweep and violence of human passions, LES MISERABLES is not only superb adventure but a powerful social document. The story of how the convict Jean-Valjean struggled to escape his past and reaffirm his humanity, in a world brutalized by poverty and ignorance, became the gospel of the poor and the oppressed. [Amazon]

Remember when Hathaway sang about Frost/Nixon with Jackman at the 2009 Oscars.  Wasn't that adorable?