Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren are to star in Hoffman's Leo Tolstoy biopic The Last Station, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie, which starts shooting April 7 in Germany, originally had Anthony Hopkins and Meryl Streep scheduled to appear in the roles of Tolstoy and his wife, Sofia. ( dpa )
Other key cast include James McAvoy and Paul Giamatti.
The film, based on Jay Parini's 1990 novel, explores the turbulent final year in the life of the Russian writer and philosopher and his troubled marriage.
Giamatti plays Tolstoy's trusted follower Chertkov, a supporter of the writer's nonviolent socialist Christian movement who becomes Sofia's cunning adversary, while McAvoy plays a naive private secretary sent by Chertkov to work for Tolstoy.
The Last Station will shoot in Saxony-Anhalt as well as the German states of Brandenburg and Thuringia, the city of Leipzig and at historical locations in Russia.