RUSSELL Crowe says he cried when reading the script for his coming romantic Australian film written by director Baz Luhrmann.

“The first draft I read — goosebumps twice and tears at the end,” Crowe told Macquarie Radio yesterday.

“It’s fantastic.”

Nicole Kidman is also set to star in the film, which is yet to be titled.

The Australian romantic epic will be set in Darwin in the 1930s, with Crowe’s and Kidman’s characters involved in a love triangle.

The Oscar-winning actors will begin rehearsals in Los Angeles next month. The film has a rumoured budget of $40 million and Luhrmann has described it as an epic on the scale of Gone With the Wind, Out of Africa or Giant.

Further details on the project are expectedto be announced in coming weeks.

“One can’t rush genius,” Crowe said.

“Mr Luhrmann is a certified genius and when he’s got the name he’ll no doubt call me up.”

BOWEN could be set to play host to some of Hollywood’s A-list including Aussie stars Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and director Baz Luhrmann.
Luhrmann, the Australian writer and director of Strictly Ballroom, Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge and musical La Boheme, is seeking the perfect site for his next film project which will star two of Australia’s hottest acting talents.

Bowen mayor Mike Brunker said Bowen’s wide streets and ‘‘old-time feel’’ was just what Luhrmann and his team had in mind.

‘‘Baz was here on Wednesday — so fingers crossed we’ve got the tick for the flick,’’ he said.

Cr Brunker said filming in Bowen would raise the profile of the town.
‘‘There’s a huge economic benefit — I think they want to be here for three or four months,’’ he said.

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Dion Beebe took top honors for MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA in the feature film competition here tonight at the 20th Annual American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Outstanding Achievement Awards at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel.

It is the first ASC Outstanding Achievement Award for Beebe, who was nominated along with Robert Elswit for GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK, Andrew Lesnie for KING KONG, Wally Pfister for BATMAN BEGINS, and Rodrigo Prieto for BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.

The award was presented by Bill Paxton who observed, “All of the nominees have artfully rendered images that create a sense of time and place. They guided the audience under the surface where they discovered the souls of the characters and the spirits of the stories.”

Edward James Olmos presented the television movie award to Robbie Greenberg for HBO’s WARM SPRINGS. Greenberg’s fellow nominees were Alan Caso for INTO THE WEST, Thomas A. Del Ruth for CODE BREAKERS, Jan Kiesser for REEFER MADNESS, and Bill Roe for FAITH OF MY FATHERS. It is the fourth ASC Outstanding Achievement Award for Greenberg, and his second consecutive win after taking last year’s prize for Iron Jawed Angels.

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IT’s not Oklahoma!, it’s not Gone With The Wind and it’s definitely not a musical – but Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe will feature in a “sweeping romance” directed by Baz Luhrmann.

“Yes and it’s very passionate,” the Moulin Rouge! director said of their on-screen relationship.

Luhrmann confirmed details of his highly anticipated next movie ahead of an official announcement in three weeks, when the title will be revealed.

The epic begins in the mid-1930s and concludes with its major set-piece, the 1942-43 Japanese bombing of Darwin and the exodus south, known as the Adelaide River Stakes.

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A sweeping, romantic epic — possibly Australia’s biggest and most expensive movie to be made — will be filmed in the Kimberleys of Western Australia, Darwin in the Northern Territory and in the state of Queensland. The film, whose title has not yet been announced, will be directed by celebrated Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and stars Oscar winners Nicole Kidman (The Hours) and Russell Crowe (Gladiator).

Luhrmann is expected to rehearse his Australian stars in Los Angeles next month and begin shooting five months later.

Luhrmann has directed Kidman previously in Moulin Rouge.

Luhrmann first came to film prominence with Strictly Dancing which was then followed by Romeo + Juliet, a hip modern version of Shakespeare’s classic story of star-crossed lovers.

The Luhrmann film epic is said to begin in the mid-1930s and conclude with the 1942-43 Japanese bombing of Darwin and the exodus south, known as the Adelaide River Stakes.

The light-hearted working title has been Project Oklahoma.

But the director Baz Luhrmann has confirmed that his next film, which will star Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, is not another Moulin Rouge.

“It’s not a musical,” he said with a laugh yesterday.

“And it’s not Oklahoma!”

Speaking publicly about the film for the first time, Luhrmann described it as a “classic romance that uses the sweeping landscape of Australia” and runs from the mid-1930s to the bombing of Darwin during World War II.

Filming will start in August at the latest, to beat the wet season in northern Australia, with backing from the Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox.

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AS Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe begin rehearsals for their first movie together, the Australian film’s director, Baz Luhrmann, said he was still missing a key cast member.

Luhrmann yesterday put out a casting call for an indigenous boy, aged 7-10, to join the cast of his untitled Australian epic, set in Darwin in the 1930s.

The director, best known for the musical Moulin Rouge, said Kidman and Crowe, whose characters become involved in a love triangle, will begin rehearsing in Los Angeles in two weeks.

With a rumoured budget of $40million, the movie will be shot in Australia and is set to be one of the most expensive and adventurous local films.

Speaking from the north Queensland town of Bowen, which may double as Darwin, Luhrmann described the film as an epic on the scale of Gone With The Wind, Out Of Africa or Giant.

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Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) is scheduled to begin principal photography in July or August on his Australian-set period epic starring Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe, reports Production Weekly.

The site says rehearsals start in May on the romance that is being compared to Gone With the Wind. It is set around the time of World War II and will be shot in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia on a set created from scratch by Luhrmann.

Luhrmann is collaborating with Collateral screenwriter and fellow Aussie Stuart Beattie on the film, which is expected to be made through 20th Century Fox.

IT’S not Oklahoma!, it’s not Gone With The Wind and it’s definitely not a musical.

But Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe will feature in a “sweeping romance” for Baz Luhrmann.

“Yes, and it’s very passionate,” the Moulin Rouge! director said of the two stars’ on-screen relationship.

The epic begins in the mid-1930s and ends with its major set piece, the 1942-43 Japanese bombing of Darwin and the exodus south, which became known as the Adelaide River Stakes.

Luhrmann, who has researched the film for 10 years, said the tale, co-written by Collateral’s Stuart Beattie and The Pianist’s Ron Harwood, will be a “mythological telling” drawn from books and historic materials.

“Russell, Nicole and I have been wanting to do a large Australian piece for a very long time,” he said.

It is understood both actors have dramatically lowered their fees in order to collaborate with Luhrmann.

Shooting begins in August on location in the Kimberleys, Darwin and Queensland.

“We’re in a unique moment where we can make an Australian film on a scale that’s never been made about Australia with Australian actors in all the primary and lead roles,” Luhrmann said.

Nicole Kidman has slammed press reports she will marry country music star Keith Urban in Australia next month.

Stories surfaced last week that the celebrity couple had sent out invitations for an 11 March ceremony in Sydney.

However, Kidman’s Australian publicist Wendy Day says, “Everything about that story is nonsense.

“Nicole Kidman is not getting married to Keith Urban at a Catholic church in Sydney on 11 March. I know of no wedding. I know of no wedding date. I know of no wedding plans.”

According to Day, Kidman will be presenting an Academy Award on 5 March and has no immediate plans to return to Australia.

Day adds, “She is starting work on a new film in upstate New York in early April.”

Kidman and Urban have been dating for the past year and made their first official public appearance at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles earlier this month.