Amanda Seyfried and Taylor Swift join cast of Les Miz

By Sarah Sluis

Amanda Seyfried as Cosette and Taylor Swift as Eponine are the latest additions to Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper's (The King's Speech) production of Les Misrables. The musical will shoot in March with plans to release during holiday prime time, December 7, 2012. I have mixed feelings about the casting, mainly of Swift.

Swift may be able to sing, but she has a fakeness to her acting that came across even during her brief role in Valentine's Day. Those who aren't fans of the country songstress may take comfort in the horrible trajectory of her character's life. She is the daughter of the Thnardier family, which took a girl, Cosette, in and abused her. Eponine was the Thnardier's true daughter, but as an adult she pines for a man who is only in love with Cosette.

Seyfried's role is much bigger than Eponine's. I've been so surprised to see Seyfried's career take off since she first played the airhead friend in Mean Girls. In Mamma Mia! she showed she can handle musicals, and Slash Film reports she's trained as an opera singer--a big plus.

Seyfried and Swift join a cast that's studded with big names and Oscar nominations. Hugh Jackman plays the beleagured Jean ValJean, Russell Crowe the hard-nosed Inspector Javert, and Anne Hathaway the pitiful Fontaine. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter will play the Thnardiers, tavern owners who mistreat Cosette but are also something of an evil caricature in the stage version (perhaps to soften the blow). Baron Cohen and Carter both have experience in these kinds of roles, so they're cast quite well. Eddie Redmayne, who plays the young man pining for Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn, will provide the third point to the love triangle between Cosette, Eponine, and his character, Marius. Les Misrables is an incredibly ambitious musical to pull off on screen, but as a fan of the musical and Hooper's work, I will definitely see the film version, for better or worse.