January 6

source: The Sun-Herald

January 6, 2002

Crowe in two minds over directorial debut
by Christine Sams

Russell Crowe, set to return to Sydney this weekend after the American premiere of A Beautiful Mind, will spend the next few weeks making a final decision about an $80 million movie project in Australia.

Crowe's agent, Martin Bedford, has confirmed the Oscar winner is seriously considering making his directorial debut in Australia and is courting offers for a big budget film.

"There are a lot of offers in front of him at moment, including the directing role," Bedford said.

"One of the projects is an $80 million film which a studio wants him to direct in Australia."

"Russell certainly has an enormous level of choice in front of him, and for an Oscar winner the next step is a very important one."

Crowe is keen to attend the Sydney premiere of A Beautiful Mind, which will be released nationally on February 28, but is juggling the demands of his hectic promotional schedule before confirming his appearance.

He is expected to jet back to the US at least twice in the next 4 weeks for awards ceremonies, including the Golden Globes in a fortnight. He will also be there in March for the Academy Awards.

"All his schedules are still being put in place and his appearance here will depend on any other commitments involving the film," Bedford said.

After Crowe's stunning victory at the Oscars last year for Gladiator, he is among top contenders for this years Best Actor award and could be on the verge of back-to-back wins with his performance as schizophrenic mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr.

It has been only a few years since the academy fell in love with the story of a troubled mathematician, awarding Matt Damon and Ben Affleck an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Goodwill Hunting. But apart from number crunching on the big screen, Crowe's performance is said to unravel a number of myths surrounding schizophrenia.

Crowe, who said last year he was hoping for a holiday, spent only a short time in Sydney before Christmas, then embarked on his grueling promotional schedule overseas.

He will crisscross the globe to promote Nash's story until the Oscars are announced, but will return to Australia for an extended period to work on a home-grown feature.

While Crowe is still considering his next project, speculation has ranged from a big-screen version of Hogan's Heroes to his directorial debut for the war epic The Long Green Shore.

But the actor has long been reluctant to talk about his plans for an Australian-made war movie. "I hate it when someone announces what you're going to do in the future, because everyone runs around and looks at the source material they believe you're looking at," he told the Sun-Herald. "They make all these decisions about what it's going to be."

While it is believed sections of The Long Green Shore will be filmed in the South Pacific, regional Australians might also benefit from the big-budget film.

Crowe made a top-secret visit to Forbes in country NSW last year to check out the terrain.

Source: Female First (UK)

January 6, 2011

Elizabeth Banks has described Russell Crowe as "the bees's knees."

The actress teams up with the Oscar winner in their new movie The Next Three Days, which is directed by Paul Haggis.

And Banks reveals that she enjoyed working with Crowe and that challenges that that brought.Speaking to The Press Association: "I just think [he] is the bee's knees.There's a reason he has an Oscar, he's one of the greatest. He was a pleasure and a challenge, it was an exciting thing to do every day to go to work with him." And Banks explains that there are several themes throughout the movie.

"This is a movie for anybody that feels their life is a little out of control, this is a movie that says anybody can take control of their life and change their circumstances.

"The movie is about love and this man doing whatever it takes to keep the mother of his child. He feels really wronged by the system and the system is broken, there are many innocent people sitting in prison The Innocence Project proves that all the time. People do go to prison wrongly accused."

Source: UK Press Association

January 6, 2011

Russell Crowe has joked that his co-star Elizabeth Banks looked good behind bars in their new movie The Next Three Days. "It was a lot of fun seeing her in prison garb and how naturally she suited those jail clothes," teased the actor, who plays Elizabeth's other half in the new thriller. The movie sees Russell's character attempt to rescue his wife from prison after she is convicted of murder. "She has a very robust sense of humour and I think that's required playing a character like this," Russell explained. "I was very lucky on this movie as I got to work with a lot of great actors, every week we had someone very cool come in that I got to do some scenes with," he said. Liam Neeson makes a cameo in the film playing a hardened criminal and jail breaker. "Doing a scene with Liam was fantastic, I've been a big fan of his for some time," Russell said. He added: "There was a gigantic amount of dialogue which was very difficult for him. I've just got to sit there and listen to him talk but I think it was about seven or eight pages he had to cram into his head, so it must have been very difficult for him coming to a film set for a day and memorising that level of dialogue. But it was a great experience."