Russell Crowe's directing, writing and producing debut.

[FlickJunkie]

We all know Oscar winning actor and rock band frontman Russell Crowe is multitalented. Turns out he has many more hats. He plans to direct, produce, AND star in The Long Green Shore, a World War II drama about an Australian battalion that wonders about the necessity of its mission, fighting overmatched, battle weary Japanese forces in New Guinea in the waning days of the war. Crowe will also rewrite the screenplay by Bob Ellis, a collaborator with the late John Hepworth, who wrote the original novel.

Crowe hopes that this film will get across the Australian viewpoint of W.W.II, that not many people know of.

Crowe also got A Beautiful Mind's director and Happy Day's star Ron Howard to star alongside him in the film. Well, not really star since Howard's role is 7 lines in all.

Production begins this spring and could be out by late 2002/early 2003...

I'm looking forward to this, wondering if Crowe can prove himself as a writer and director, as well. If he does, then he's, well, pretty fuckin talented, I must say.

[Puck Bond]

This sounds very interesting to me...I love war movies anyway and WWII in particular, and it will be interesting to see Crowe at the helm of a movie.

It sounds like a story that he would be good for...it deals with a part of the world where he is from and their viewpoint on a certain subject. It sounds like this is a personal story to Crowe(obviously he wasn't in WWII), but if he wants to direct, produce and star in it, it must mean something important to him.

[Muha]

sounds cool... war movies are great if they are done right... plus russell crowe kicks major ass.

[ColinM]

Can't wait for this one! Russell Crowe is one of my favorite actors. What a great talent!

[FlickJunkie]

Have you seen A Beautiful Mind yet, Colin? I knew you wanted to but had to settle for Imposter since your local theater didn't have ABM. But, did ya see it? It's amazing.

[idealdiscountdude]

I really can't stand Russell Crowe. In every interview he is pompous, arrogant and very rude. I really have no respect for the man, but hey, that's me! http://www.joblo.com/ubb/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by idealdiscountdude (edited 01-11-2002).]

[inglourious basterd]

Id love to hear the horror stories from Crowe as a director. lol...do you think that anyone is going to work for him?

Flickjunkie gave me this link in another thread. This is proof of his "professional" tendencies.

http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,190596~1~~,00.html

Like him or not, I think that this is probably something that people will definitely look forward to.

[This message has been edited by psudoazn (edited 01-11-2002).]

[FlickJunkie]

I thought that interview was well-done. I was impressed with how much the interviewer got out of Russell Crowe, a lot of that stuff I did not know about him was revealed there.

It originally appeared in EW magazine. I have that issue, Crowe is on the cover.

[This message has been edited by FlickJunkie (edited 01-11-2002).]

[sloopyfan]

I'm tired of war movies, it seems like there is a new one released every other week.

[max]

Great actors don't necessarily make great directors. Or vice-versa. Warren Beatty is a better director than he is an actor. Ditto Woody Allen. Sean Penn and Jack Nicholson act better than they direct. Based on A BRONX TALE, De Niro has the potential to be as good a director as he is an actor. Can't think of other examples right now. Anyone?

[Cyclonus]

Mel Gibson did a great job with Braveheart!

[dreamsofsea]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Cyclonus:
Mel Gibson did a great job with Braveheart!</font>

I think Mel did a GREAT job too. Is it true that originally he was only going to direct and had plans for someone else to star in it. (I don't mean to sidestep Russel, a quick answer would be great, and then back to topic at hand)

[dicaprio_travolta_man]

That's a great idea, you go Russel!!!! I think Russel Crowe is not only the most talented man in Hollywood but also the best actor in Hollywood. No one can act as good as this man can. Him turning to directing duties will be very interesting, something I look forward to. If Russel does a great job at this I mean who knows it could turn into Braveheart where Gibson was nominated for Best Picture (which he won), Best Director (which won), and Best Actor. Now if Crowe's movie is good I think it could turn into another Braveheart and get those nominations and wins, that would be something.. I also like it when actors turn to directors because the final film is usually a good one, I mean look at Tom Hanks for "That Thing You Do" (8/10), Robert Redford for "The Horse Whisperer" (7/10), Billy Bob Thorton for "All The Pretty Horses" (10/10), and of course Mel Gibson for "Braveheart" (8/10). If Crowe does as great of a job here as the other ones I mentioned did with their movies I will know for fact that Russel Crowe is the man, and the King of Hollywood.


DTM.........

[max]

DiCaprio_Travolta_NotDeniro Fan raves: "I think Russel Crowe is not only the most talented man in Hollywood but also the best actor in Hollywood. No one can act as good as this man can."

Not quite. He's on a roll right now and he may be on his way to being the best actor, but there are several living actors whose body of work easily surpasses his right now. Until he's achieved what Brando, De Niro, Pacino, Hopkins, Streep, Hackman, Freeman, Nicholson, Hoffman, Duvall and a few others have, then it's a bit premature to declare him the best. And among actors of his generation, he has Penn, Norton, Depp, MacGregor, Oldman, Bridges to contend with.

[dicaprio_travolta_man]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by max:
DiCaprio_Travolta_NotDeniro Fan raves: "I think Russel Crowe is not only the most talented man in Hollywood but also the best actor in Hollywood. No one can act as good as this man can."

Not quite. He's on a roll right now and he may be on his way to being the best actor, but there are several living actors whose body of work easily surpasses his right now. Until he's achieved what Brando, De Niro, Pacino, Hopkins, Streep, Hackman, Freeman, Nicholson, Hoffman, Duvall and a few others have, then it's a bit premature to declare him the best. And among actors of his generation, he has Penn, Norton, Depp, MacGregor, Oldman, Bridges to contend with. </font>

Okay, I agree with that statement. I wasn't really paying attention to what I was writing. Sorry. But, come on man, you forgot to mention Leonardo Dicaprio as competition. He is surely more competition then Johny Depp and Ewan Mcgregor, he has one more academy award nomination then they do. I see this man becoming a force to be rekkoned with in Hollywood, with 4 GREAT performances under his belt, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Basketball Diaries, Titanic, and Romeo and Juliet, he will definetly become known as one the best actors in Hollywood. He is also the star of the most popular movie of all time and the highest grossing movie of all time with Titanic. So if your going to mention competition you have to mention Leonardo Dicaprio because wheter you like him or not you still have to admit that he's a pretty damn good actor.

[max]

My bad. DiCaprio is a talent to reckon with, I agree. But my favorite performances of his are in THIS BOY'S LIFE, WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE and MARVIN'S ROOM. It was hard to appreciate the performances in ROMEO AND JULIET because of Luhrmann's overwrought direction (ditto MOULIN ROUGE). And I have to give him credit for staying afloat as long as he did in TITANIC, as badly written as it was.

[FlickJunkie]

To put Leonardo Dicaprio in the same leauge as Russell Crowe is blasphemy. Dicaprio is not that good. He was good in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. But he was not that good in Titanic. True I liked Titanic, but his performance was one of the problems I had with the film and I'm glad he wasn't nominated at all.

Now can we get back to the topic? Thanks.

[inglourious basterd]

Will this be an original or adapted screenplay? Since Crowe isn't an established writer, I am rather curious on how the final product will turn out (however, I am waiting for it with eager anticipation).

Here is an excerpt of the interview I posted above:
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
Q: You must be pretty happy with your performance, then.
A: I always say I've given 24 insufficient performances and I'm looking forward to the time in my life when I'll do something that I think is good.

Q: You're unhappy with your performances in all of your films? Even your last three or four?
A: There's always stuff you can do better, stuff that maybe you didn't uncover enough. But if you do something that you truly believe is perfect, then that's got to be the last movie you do. If it's not a search, if you don't think of yourself as a student of the art form, then you should stop doing it.
</font>

What I am also wondering is: "Will this be Crowe's first 'sufficient' performance?"



[This message has been edited by psudoazn (edited 01-13-2002).]

[FlickJunkie]

I dunno if it will be sufficient enough. One thing I found sort of shocking was, in that interview, Crowe said he loved the script for Shakespeare in Love and wanted to be in it, but didn't get it. I wonder who he would have played...Shakespeare? Dunno. Here's the end of the interview...

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">EW: Have you ever had goose bumps over a script and not gotten the part?
RC: Many times. But fuck them -- that's their bad luck.

EW: Name one.
RC: I really loved the script for "Shakespeare in Love." It was one of seven scripts [Miramax chief] Harvey Weinstein sent me. At the time, I had a very aggressive relationship with Harvey, mainly coming from him. He wanted me to sign a four-film deal, which wouldn't give me control of the characters I was going to play. For some reason he couldn't understand why I didn't think that was a good idea. So he sent me these scripts to illustrate that he was the man in town with the best material. I gave him my critique of each and he went, "Who the fuck do you think you are?!" He was shaking his head, saying "You'll never get anywhere in this business." I think the thing that pissed him off was that I had actually read all seven. But the "Shakespeare" screenplay was fantastic, so I met with this English bloke who was involved at the time -- a great filmmaker, actually, but fuck him, too -- and he said his instincts told him I wasn't right for the character. I told him his instincts were fucking shit ass. Obviously we didn't get on very well.

EW: Can't imagine why.
RC: Yeah...hey, what just fell out of your pocket, mate?

EW: A Tic Tac. Want one?
RC: I thought it was drugs.

EW: Right -- like I got hopped up to do this interview.
RC: Well, you'd have to. You know, the guy you're interviewing is supposed to be one crazy motherfucker.</font>

[This message has been edited by FlickJunkie (edited 01-13-2002).]

[FlickJunkie]

Just read online that the winners of the Broadcast Film Critics Association were announced friday and A Beautiful Mind won FOUR, Best Picture, Best Actor (Crowe), Director (Howard) and Supporting Actress (Connelly). It makes it Crowe's third year in a row winning that award.

Well done EVERYONE, especially Russell Crowe! And the BFCA is probably the biggest critic association out there.

[ColinM]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by FlickJunkie:
Have you seen A Beautiful Mind yet, Colin? I knew you wanted to but had to settle for Imposter since your local theater didn't have ABM. But, did ya see it? It's amazing.</font>

Yes, that was a sad day indeed. Imposter over A Beautiful Mind. http://www.joblo.com/ubb/frown.gif

Anyway, I DID finally see A Beautiful Mind yesterday, and I think it's one of the two best movies of the year. FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC! Especially Jennifer Connelley (the first time I've seen her, and I love her already) and, of course, Russell Crowe! Crowe is one of my favorite actors, and this is by far his greatest performance to date. If he doesn't win all the Best Actor awards out there, it'll be a crime.

I just loved everything about this movie. I loved the acting, obviously. I loved the story. This is by far my favorite based-on-a-true-story story ever. I loved the characters. They were developed wonderfully (in part thanks to the acting) and I really came to feel for them (even some that weren't real!). I loved the "love overcomes all" message.

And I loved what you, FlickJunkie, called this movie's greatest achievement. It really did give me a new perspective on people who suffer from these kind of conditions.

I give it a 9/10, and it is almost a 10/10. One of the best movies I've seen in a while!

[FlickJunkie]

That's great Colin! I'm glad you liked the review of mine as well. I still keep thinking about the movie, I saw it like a week ago, and like I said, they are still haunting me. I keep thinking about. I saw it twice too.