Russell Crowe in State of Play?
So the question of the day appears to be, “Will Russell Crowe replace Brad Pitt in State of Play?” Apparently, Universal and Russell are in “talks”, but just from, oh I dunno, being a Russell fan these many years, I’d say this whole thing is doubtful.
Brad Pitt walked off the movie because of script problems. If Universal thinks that Russell Crowe will be less demanding about the script than Brad, they clearly aren’t paying attention. I think Pitt walked because the situation was untenable since with the writer’s strike there’s no one available to do rewrites. Somehow I don’t see Rusty thinking that it is workable. Also, I just don’t see Russell wanting to do a remake of a BBC tv show.
I don’t understand why this is being made into movie in the first place, instead of just doing a typical US remake of a British tv show for either HBO or Showtime. Isn’t that usually how this stuff works?
HecklerSpray has some amusing commentary on this potential replacement as well:
Although, to be be fair, that isn’t because State Of Play is a world-class movie in the making; it’s because Brad Pitt stropped off production recently, right before it was due to start filming. But now, with Universal planning to sue Brad Pitt for the walk-out, State Of Play needs a new leading man, and fast. Step forward Russell Crowe, who Universal has been desperately wooing all weekend. Of course, Russell Crowe is a notoriously safe pair of hands, and won’t demand constant script changes like Brad Pitt reportedly did, apart from requesting that his character performs a 25-minute multi-stanza poem about the fickle nature of material success right in the middle of things.
Yup, I’d say that’s about right. *g*
