Crowe : Luhrmann Left in Lurch

Crowe : Luhrmann Left in Lurch

Rick in Oz...

Heath no Baz hero
From: By Michael Bodey
June 01, 2006

RUSSELL Crowe has been outwitted and Baz Luhrmann left without a male star
in a Hollywood power play.

Luhrmann's epic love story is set to begin pre-production in October with a
February shoot starring Nicole Kidman and, now, who knows, after Heath
Ledger passed on the film.
Luhrmann is overseas casting a male Australian lead. Ledger's US
representatives said the Brokeback Mountain star passed on the role, which
he reportedly had in the bag.

The Daily Telegraph understands Ledger's casting in another high-profile
international film will be announced soon.

While Crowe didn't have script approval on the 1930s Top End story, insiders
said the Oscar winner continues to throw around his "rights of consultation"
and held off signing his contract unless his changes were accepted.

Luhrmann and the studio behind the film, Twentieth Century Fox, decided the
script - co-written by Collateral's Stuart Beattie and The Pianist's Ron
Harwood - wouldn't need further input.

Crowe recently told friends he hadn't seen a final script.

"Baz is the master, he's the one, the film doesn't need two masters," said a
crew member closely involved in production.

Crowe's camp suggests the film's future is clouded given its budget ($150
million) and logistical problems (filming in The Kimberleys, Darwin and
Sydney), but production staff continued to scout locations last week.

Fox's commitment to Luhrmann is solid, despite its handshake deal with Crowe
to produce his directorial debut.

However, the studio is respectful of Luhrmann's vision and ability to hire
"low-stress" cast and crew, said one insider.

Crowe, filming Tenderness for director John Polson in New York, will be in
Sydney next week for a "re-launch" of the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

This incident will confirm to many that it was Crowe who was at the heart of
the end of the film Eucalyptus last year.

Crowe's exit impacts Aussie epic.
by Stax

May 31, 2006 - Variety reports that director Baz Luhrmann's long-planned
Australian romantic epic, which was to star Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman,
will have to go ahead without one of its Oscar-winning leads.

The trade, following up on a report that first appeared in The New York
Post, has confirmed that Crowe left the project last week after a
disagreement with its studio, 20th Century Fox.

Crowe reportedly wanted script approval before he'd sign on, which led to
the film's producers asking Luhrmann to seek another lead. The Post claimed
that fellow Aussie thesp Heath Ledger, hot off his Oscar nom for Brokeback
Mountain, had stepped in to replace Crowe. Variety, however, checked with
Ledger's reps who advised them that he had passed on the pic.

Crowe is then said to have come back to Luhrmann and was willing to forgo
script approval but was rebuffed.

"Baz doesn't publicly comment on his casting processes and currently he has
made no final decision on the film, who is in it or when or where it will be
shot," the Post quoted Luhrmann's spokesperson as saying.

Variety insists that "Kidman and Luhrmann are still attached to the project,
which 20th is going forward with. It's unlikely Crowe will return, as
studios were buzzing about his sudden late-year vacancy."

The Luhrmann project is the second potential Crowe-Kidman starrer to fall on
hard times. The two actors were at one point set to star in Eucalyptus but
that project collapsed.