Anne Hathaway Touted to Play Fantine Opposite Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables Film

Anne Hathaway sang a parody of "On My Own" aimed at Hugh Jackman on the Oscars, and now she may sing another Les Miserables tearjerker, "I Dreamed a Dream," opposite Jackman in director Tom Hooper's forthcoming movie adaptation of the show. Her rep told EW.com that Hathaway is considering playing doomed mom Fantine opposite Jackman as Jean Valjean, joining a cast that may (or may not) include Russell Crowe as Javert and Hooper’s The King’s Speech stars Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter as the Thenardiers.

Hathaway had previously been touted for a role in the Rock of Ages film and a stage and screen bio of Judy Garland, neither of which has gone forward. Her background in stage musicals makes her a perennial frontrunner for film tuners: Before her Oscar-nominated role in Rachel Getting Married and star turns in One Day, Love and Other Drugs, Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada, Get Smart and more, the actress played the lead in the City Center Encores! production of Carnival, winning the Clarence Derwent Award, and Paper Mill Playhouse productions of Jane Eyre, Gigi and Once Upon a Mattress. She showed off her dramatic chops as Viola in the 2009 Central Park production of Twelfth Night.

According to Deadline.com, the Les Miz film has moved ahead of Wolverine 2 on Jackman’s schedule, with the latest entry in the X-Men franchise bumped to spring 2012.

Les Miserables features a score by Claude-Michel Schonberg, book by Schonberg and Alain Boubil and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. The film will have a script by Oscar-nominated screenwriter William Nicholson and is being produced by Working Title films, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Cameron Mackintosh.

Click below to review Hathaway's 2011 Academy Awards number, which poked fun at a good-natured Jackman. (The two had previously sung together on the 2009 Oscar telecast.