I got this link from Mrs. Pleiades today. Seems Russell Crowe wants to spend more time in Australia to look after his business portfolio which consists of some Australian film projects. You don't say, Russell...
Having released three Hollywood movies in two years, The Next Three Days star told The Daily Telegraph he intends to expand the projects in the pipeline for his local production company, Fear Of God Films.
"I don't really have any plans to go overseas and make any movies this year," he said.
"We've got a lot of things going on in Australia and I need to spend some time here to solidify and build."
While the Souths co-owner wouldn't go into the specifics, we understand the main focus on his solidification schedule is the adaptation of My Brother's Keeper, a book based on Aussie underworld figure Anthony Hines and his fatal clash with the notorious Bra Boys surfing tribe.
"We've got a bunch of projects we've been developing, one of them for the last seven years," he said.
"For the next little while I want to become part of this magic wave that is rising in Australian film again with Animal Kingdom and a bunch of other films ...
"It's feeling really good. The energy is here."
To which we say, "bollocks, Russ." The Australian Film Industry has got its back against the wall - and amazing to say, more so than ever - and the high Australian Dollar has knocked out the part of the industry that services Hollywood. The point is, there is no energy to be felt. It's dead.
Panalux is up for sale. When it's gone, all those lights are going to leave these shores, probably for South Africa where the low Rand is making it the next destination of Hollywood in search of Techno-Mexicans (yes, that's what they called us). Once they leave our shores, that's actually a chunk of our film-making capability, gone. Don't pretend this isn't going down the gurgler fast.
Russell wouldn't sound so callow and wrong-headed if it weren't for the fact that as late as 12months ago, he wouldn't read anything from Australia. There's also the little yarn about when Martin Bedford said, "Russell, you can save the Australian Film Industry," and Russell snidely retorted "Martin, nothing can save the Australian Film Industry."
I figure it must have been really nice to have been so right for so long while being so successful, far away from the mess; so please spare us the bullshit that you're back here because "the energy is so good". We've been here all along. We know exactly what the energy is like and it's anything but 'good'.
Top 10 Historically Misleading Films
Just thought that Australian actors seem to contribute greatly to misrepresenting history. Of that list over at Time's website:
- There's Mel AND Heath Ledger in 'The Patriot'
- There's Russell in 'Robin Hood'
- There's Mel in and directing 'Braveheart'
- David Wenham in '300'.
- Geoffrey Rush in 'The King's Speech'
- and again, Geoffrey Rush in 'Shakespeare in Love'
That's 6 out of 10 films listed. I don't know if 'Shakespeare in Love' really counts as a historic film, but by the same token, Geoffrey Rush AND Cate Blanchett have been party to the gross historic misrepresentations of both 'Elizabeth' and 'Elizabeth: The Golden Age'. I'd also add Heath Ledger's turn as Casanova, and Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman in 'Australia' to that list (amazing how we can't even get our own history right)(perhaps this is emblematic of the problem itself).
You see what I'm getting at.
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