October 16

Source: The Telegraph

October 16, 2001

Author Tim Winton's thoughts on Russell Crowe:

Like many of his characters, he's as straight as a die. He calls a spade a shovel, thinks before he speaks and knows exactly what he likes and loathes.

He likes Russell Crowe ("the best actor of his generation") and author Helen Garner ("the best prose stylist in the country").

Winton's last book, Dirt Music, was short-listed for the prestigious Man Booker Prize in 2002 and is being turned into a film by Australian director Phil Noyce.

Russell Crowe has expressed an interest, and Noyce wants him in one of the two male lead roles.

"Last year, Russell sent me a card about how much he liked the book and that he was looking forward to seeing the script," Winton says.

He reckons the film would probably benefit if Crowe took the role of Jim Buckridge, whose girlfriend cheats on him with a man he hates.

"He'd bring a kind of complexity to the film that very few other actors could.

"The guy can act. I think he's the actor of his generation, for sure there's no-one really getting that close. He's the real deal.

"He could play the woman if he really wanted to."

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

October 16, 2004

Kidman plants roots for lead in 'Eucalyptus'
By Bec Smith

Nicole Kidman is confirmed to star in "Eucalyptus" opposite Russell Crowe, with shooting due to begin in February, according to sources. The role came to Kidman after topliner Crowe was reportedly unhappy with the options for his leading lady and asked that his good friend be approached.

The casting may require some rewriting because in the Murray Bail novel of the same name, 37-year-old Kidman's character is only 19. In the adaptation, a widower (Geoffrey Rush) plants hundreds of varieties of eucalyptus trees and then decrees that only a man who can name every one of them may marry his daughter Ellen (Kidman). Although a number of suitors appear, she falls for a storytelling stranger who shares with her tales of faraway lands.

The film is being directed by Jocelyn Moorehouse, written by Michelle Joyner and Moorehouse, with Uberto Pasolini and Lynda House producing. Fox Searchlight Pictures is financing and distributing.