Source:Variety

April 1, 2008

Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren are toplining Michael Hoffman's Leo Tolstoy biopic The Last Station, which starts shooting April 7 in Germany, reports Variety. They replace previously announced actors Anthony Hopkins and Meryl Streep in the roles of Tolstoy and his wife, Sofia.

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. British actress Anne-Marie Duff, who is married to McAvoy, stars as Tolstoy's daughter Sasha.

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.