BUSHY-FACED residents are among those being sought to feature in a Hollywood adaption of Thomas Hardy’s classic Far from the Madding Crowd.

The Fox Searchlight Pictures production will come to Oxfordshire next month and the team wants to find extras to portray a range of classes from the wide spectrum of English rural life.

Great Gatsby star Carey Mulligan will portray Bathsheba Everdene while Frost/Nixon’s Michael Sheen will play William Boldwood, one of her three suitors.

Though the producers are keeping tight-lipped about the location, the two stars and others will be filming on two or three nights on the Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire border near Bicester from November 6.

They will then be in Oxfordshire – though not Oxford – on Thursday, November 14.

Both will be indoors and the latter will be in a church, with producers seeking musically-minded residents to feature in a choir.

Crowd second assistant director Guy Campbell said: “We are looking for a mixture, we are doing a scene where we will require some people who look like they have come from surrounding villages and fields.

“We also want a few people who look like they are from a slightly more wealthier families in the area, a real mix of types of people.”

In keeping with its 19th century theme, producers are also seeking those with plenty of face foliage, particularly beards, with applicants urged to start growing now.

He said: “They can’t have hair that’s too short, they have to have a little bit of length in there.”

Women with a “natural look, medium to long length hair” are also being sought.

Successful applicants – who will get £85 for a day and about £130 for night shoot – will be invited to a wardrobe fitting in Oxford, pencilled in for October 29 to November 1, and given facial trimming where required.

Shooting began on September 16 in Dorset and the crew – led by The Hunt director Thomas Vinterberg – will visit London at a later date.

The 1874 classic, adapted by One Day screenwriter David Nicholls, tells the story of Bathsheba’s loves including sheep farmer Gabriel Oak; Sergeant Frank Troy and prosperous bachelor William Boldwood.

Mr Vinterberg said: “It is a great privilege to bring such a wonderful piece of very English literature to the screen.”

Applicants should send a photograph of themselves with their height, chest, waist, collar, inside leg and shoe size to maddingcrowd2013@ gmail.com