Baz Luhrmann is a filmmaker who I really admire, which is why it bugs me so much that he hasn’t made a movie in years, and that every time he tries to get one going, it seems that bad luck takes him down. After the masterpiece of Moulin Rouge I thought Baz would sail right into something fantastic, and it looked like he was set to do an Alexander the Great movie – and maybe one that would have tread in gay territory Oliver Stone was afraid to enter. But that movie kept getting delayed, and once Stone’s film tanked, Baz’s was dead.
He then turned his attention to an as yet untitled Australian period epic – he calls it his Gone With the Wind. The film is supposed to be huge, and because of this the movie got delayed. Now, a Baz Luhrmann film getting delayed is a bad thing, and this time it’s no exception: star Russell Crowe has dropped out of the project over a “disagreement with the studio.”
Nicole Kidman remains on board, but rumors that Heath Ledger would be taking Crowe’s place are unfounded. What does this mean for the movie? Fox is supposedly still behind it, but I wonder who Baz can get to fill Crowe’s shoes – at least who Fox will think is bankable enough.