Hopkins tapped to play Leo Tolstoy

CANNES, France, May 21 (UPI) -- Academy award winners Anthony Hopkins and Meryl Streep are set to star in "The Last Station," a Hollywood biopic about the life of Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

The film, a British-German co-production, is one of nine movies about writers -- including Alexander Pushkin, Charles Dickens, Moliere, John Keats, Jane Austen, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, and Dylan Thomas -- being touted during the Cannes Film Festival, The Times of London reported Monday.

Hopkins, better known for his Oscar-winning performance as flesh-eater Hannibal Lecter in "Silence of the Lambs," portrayed author C.S. Lewis in "Shadowlands." Streep, tapped to play Tolstoy's wife, earned awards for her lead role in "Sophie's Choice" and her supporting role in "Kramer vs. Kramer."

Tolstoy's descendants agreed to allow filming to take place in Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy's estate south of Moscow. The author was born there in 1828 and, after his marriage to Sofia Behrs in 1862, returned to the estate to live for 48 years.

Michael Hoffman, who directed "Restoration" and "A Midsummer's Night's Dream," is slated to direct the film, which is scheduled start shooting next year.