News > Plummer, Mirren to Play the Tolstoys in "Station"

We'd heard that Helen Mirren was set to play Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy in a film called "The Last Station," but now Variety is reporting that esteemed Canadian actor Christopher Plummer will play her husband Leo, author of such classic novels as "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina." Paul Giamatti, James McAvoy, and the latter's wife Anne-Marie Duff co-star.

The film is based on a 1990 novel by Jay Parini that explores the final year of Tolstoy's life. 

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 stars as Tolstoy's daughter Sasha.

Anthony Hopkins and Meryl Streep had been pegged for the lead parts but withdrew for unknown reasons. Sounds like a fairly even trade to me.

-David Morgan