I haven’t had a lot of time the past couple of weeks to make many posts here as I’m busy planning at trip, but I promise I will be back in action soon with hot drooling Aussie man love. In the meantime, check out my friend Isa’s page on the Five Sexiest Englishmen. I heartily concur on some of her choices, particularly Clive Owen (yummy) and Daniel Craig.

Also, 3:10 to Yuma is out on DVD today, so if you like Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, you should read my review of 3:10 to Yuma and grab yourself a copy of the DVD (preferably from my page, yo!)

Funnily enough, some of my favorite Aussies were born British, as I’m sure many of you know.

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*

Since Ridley Scott is my favorite director and Russell Crowe is my favorite actor, I really enjoy reading about how much Russell enjoys working with Ridley. So here’s another interview that makes me quite happy.

Q. Does having that sort of connection with a director make your job easier as an actor?
Russell: Of course! He knows the best thing to do is just see [what I’m doing as an actor], and he’ll get it when he sees it. But I know what he’s looking for. He downloads to me what his desires are, what he sees and believes in, what he sees the movie as, and I listen and retain it and become a version of his conscience. We’ll be in the middle of something and I’ll say, “Didn’t you say you wanted this to be like that and to have the bloke say this to go with that?” and he’ll say, “Exactly! And how would you interpret that?”

You can read the rest of this interview with Russell at Skylight Magazine.

I wanted to see American Gangster a second time in the movie theater so I ended up taking my dad out to see it tonight. He loved it as well and said it was totally one of those movies he’d see again.

There’s a terrific long interview with Russell  Crowe at The Void about American Gangster.  Russell’s in excellent form and gregarious as hell.

I know that some of the people will assassinate me for saying this but what Ridley and I know about each other is that we’re both very kind and generous people. That’s why we get on.”

This is totally true though. *g*

Lionsgate has already started sending out DVD screeners of Russell Crowe flick, 3:10 to Yuma, to Academy members and according to the LA Times they are ready to give the film a very hard shove into the limelight as an Oscar contender.

I loved this movie a great deal and as much as I really enjoyed American Gangster, I think 3:10 to Yuma is an even better film. Russell’s performance is wonderful, so I’d love to see some nominations here. Also, since Russell refused to promote this movie due to some disagreements with Lionsgate over the timing of its release, it would be a fun little irony to see him get nominated for it *g*

The article is quite long and worth reading if you’re interested in how the whole Awards season works, but if not — here’s the relevant bits about Yuma. From LA Times

Ortenberg thinks Russell Crowe and Christian Bale’s nicely reviewed western fits right in with that crowd, and that the well-crafted Hollywood-style entertainment will benefit by standing out from the rash of dark, depressing dramas and Iraq war-related movies cannibalizing each other almost weekly at the box office and being served up every weekend at official Academy screenings

To that end, even though the official screening of “3:10 to Yuma” was reportedly enthusiastically applauded last month, its distributor is making sure Academy members don’t forget it.

They are four-walling the film at theaters in Pasadena, the Valley and the Beverly Hills Music Hall from November through February, as well as taking many trade ads and, during the heat of the season, full-page advertisements on most Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Los Angeles Times.

Additionally, they are buying the prime marquee space during the entire season at the Music Hall, which just happens to be almost directly across the street from — you guessed it — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

I expect, when it comes down to it, that both Yuma and American Gangster will wind up with heaps of nominations and not just for the Oscars. So it will be Russell against Russell this year, I just bet.

Russell was interviewed on UK show, This Morning, by Alison Hammond and sang Folsom Prison Blues while accompanying himself on guitar.

It is at least 10 kinds of awesome.