Some new pics of Russell from a battle scene filmed at the beach...



( More inside... )

Very nice. Russell can be seen on horse in one of them...

Russell Crowe on Hollywood Walk of Fame

From correspondents in Los Angeles

June 18, 2009 01:57pm

RUSSELL Crowe has earned a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has revealed its honorees for 2010 and Crowe's name was on a list of 28 entertainers.

A date for the New Zealand-born Oscar winner's ceremony, where a star will be placed on Hollywood Boulevard, is yet to be scheduled, but it will occur during 2010.

Other celebrities set to cement a place in Hollywood history in 2010 are director James Cameron, actors John Cusack, Colin Firth, Adam Sandler, Emma Thompson and Mark Wahlberg, and musicians Bryan Adams, The Funk Brothers, Chaka Khan, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, the band ZZ Top and Roy Orbison.

The Chamber of Commerce selected just 28 names from more than 200 nominations.

Australians who recently received the honour include Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett.

Earlier this year Hugh Jackman received another honour, leaving his hand prints in wet concrete outside Hollywood's Grauman Theatre.

Source

Here are pics of Russell, along with Scott Grimes and Kevin Durand, on the set in Wales, June 16.



( Big pics inside... )

Russell has done an interview for Australia's 2GB...

Alan Jones talks to Russell Crowe on the set of Robin Hood.

Russell in Amsterdam, May 3rd...



( Inside... )

Sandra Hall, reviewer
April 27, 2009


IN JOHN POLSON'S Tenderness, Russell Crowe is being avuncular a role he fills with an admirable lack of vanity. He wears a sleeveless cable-knit jumper over a nylon shirt together with the kind of moustache that went out of fashion long before the death of Clark Gable in 1960.

Crowe is playing Lieutenant Cristofuoro, a New York police detective caught up in the case of Eric Poole (Jon Foster), a young psychopath who's just been released from juvenile detention where he's been held for the murder of his mother and stepfather.

Cristofuoro has put in a lot of time trying to understand Eric and he knows that the 18-year-old has committed more murders for which he hasn't been charged. He's also sure that the boy will kill again. "You know that. I know that. I'm going to stop you doing it."

Delivered with Crowe's distinctive purr, the line is oddly comforting. He could be a friendly GP promising Eric a cure for biting his nails.

Robert Cormier, who wrote the book on which the film is based, drummed up a lot of debate during his long and successful career as an author of novels for young people. From all accounts, he led a fulfilled family life as a happily married father of four but his books dwelled on the sinister side of human nature. Convinced there should be no taboos, whatever the age of the reader, he plunged into stories about drug addiction, bullying, bereavement, child abuse and murder. Nor did he feel obliged to supply a happy ending.

"Unflinching" is the word most often used about his work. It paints a world in which teenagers are forced to handle their own crises because the adults around them are unwitting, indifferent or downright malevolent. On the Cormier moral scale, Cristofuoro is a saint, as is Eric's aunt (Laura Dern), who agrees to have him live with her despite the fact that he's murdered her sister.

We don't learn exactly why she's prepared to be so indulgent. Some heavy pruning has gone on in the translation from page to screen and a lot of imagination is required to fill in the gaps. Eric's crimes are briskly sketched in flashback and we're left to develop our own picture of his life with his parents.

Emil Stern's screenplay concentrates on the days following Eric's release as he drives through upstate New York on his way to see a girl he knows from the detention centre. Cristofuoro isn't far behind because he suspects that he plans to murder her. As the film's thesis would have it, sex, power and tenderness are all the same to Eric. The act of killing makes him feel both merciful and omnipotent. At least that's the good detective's reading of his character and there's not much else to go on, as Foster's performance is curiously bland. Pale without being interesting, he coasts his way through the picture on alternate waves of boredom and irritation.

The source of his irritation is Lori Cranston (Sophie Traub), a sexually precocious 15-year-old who has followed his case over the years and become obsessed with him for reasons that have everything to do with her own home life. Her mother, Marsha (Arija Bareikis), is fond but feckless, with a drinking problem and chronically bad judgment when it comes to boyfriends. When we first make Lori's acquaintance, she's putting a chair against the bathroom door in an effort to ensure that the latest of these de facto stepfathers doesn't sneak in and watch her showering.

Even so, running away from home with a psychopath would seem to be an excessively extreme way of dealing with her problems.

Yet that's what she chooses to do.

After lying in wait outside Eric's aunt's house, she seizes her chance and stows away in the back of his car just before he begins his drive north.

He isn't pleased and as they journey together through an outer suburban maze of diners, motels and gas stations, he grows grumpier by the minute.

They haven't gone very far before he starts fondling potentially lethal weapons like pillows and butter knives. Tension mounts in theory.

In reality, the action moves at such an excruciatingly sluggish pace that even with the pounding rhythms of the score I could only attain a level of mild anxiety.

The climax takes place at a funfair a setting with powerful connotations for fans of film noir and the obligatory roller-coaster ride is thrown into the mix in a bid to quicken the pace.

But the result plays more like desperation than suspense and while the ending offers an epiphany of sorts, you haven't been given anything to make it matter.

Cormier himself called Tenderness a tough book written in "a minor key" and perhaps Polson was inspired by the description. But if so, he doesn't come close. There's a yawning gap between tragedy and cheerlessness and even the persuasive tenderness of Crowe's Cristofuoro can't bridge it.

Source.

"STATE OF PLAY" Review

I wrote this REVIEW of the new political thriller called "STATE OF PLAY". It stars Russell, along with Ben Affleck.

And video too!

Russell Crowe's Merry Men have every faith that Ridley Scott's new Robin Hood epic, starring Russell in the title role, will be a spectacular interpretation of the fable.

Kevin Durand, who plays Little John, Alan Doyle, who plays Alan-a-Dale and Scott Grimes who plays Will Scarlet all took time out from filming to support Russell at the premiere of his new political thriller State Of Play in London.

Kevin said: "We're dealing with Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe, who have an obvious history of being very detailed and prolific and I think that this film will definitely step up to it."

Alan added: "I've thought about it and it is such a long-told story and fable that it should have lots of films, it should have lots of movies, it should have lots of interpretations. I wouldn't expect ours to be the last. Like you guys I'm looking forward to seeing how Ridley and Russell have it in mind.

"Ridley and Russell have a vision in mind and we're all trusting it because we should. Their track record is amazing and we're really looking forward to how it turns out ourselves."

And Scott agreed: "You put Ridley and Russell together in anything, it's going to be spectacular and we're just lucky to be on that bandwagon right now."

After spending some time chatting to journalists on the red carpet the actors headed into the cinema saying : "We're off to be merry."

Source

Little John, Alan A-Dayle and Will Scarlet...

Russell and Helen at the London premiere for State of Play, April 21...



( Lots of pics inside... )

"STATE OF PLAY" Photo Gallery

Here is a GALLERY featuring photos from Russell's new movie, "STATE OF PLAY". Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Helen Mirren co-starred.

New Robin Hood on point with 'Gladiator'

Robin Hood, say hello to Gladiator.

The story of the bandit who steals from the rich and gives to the poor gets a makeover in Robin Hood, which reunites Gladiator star Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott.

Sporting a Caesar haircut and slimmed-down physique, Crowe shed the weight he gained for his portly characters in State of Play and Body of Lies. He also updated the bandit's wardrobe.

"He doesn't have the old Robin Hood tights," says producer Brian Grazer. "He's got armor. He's very medieval. He looks, if anything, more like he did in Gladiator than anything we're used to seeing with Robin Hood."

And though it won't be easy replicating the box office or Oscar success of the 2000 film —Gladiator raked in $458 million worldwide and won five Academy Awards, including best picture — Grazer says Robin Hood's story was ripe for revisiting.

"Oddly, it's a metaphor for today," Grazer says. "He's trying to create equality in a world where there are a lot of injustices. He's a crusader for the people, trying to reclaim some of the ill-gotten gains of the wealthy. That's a universal theme."

Not that the film will linger on the contemporary. "We just shot a scene where Maid Marion fires a flaming bow and arrow into the night sky. It's just a cool story."


Source: USA Today

Russell Crowe: 'Journalists Only Have Themselves to Blame'

by Jeanne Wolf

Russell Crowe has had his share of headline-grabbing confrontations with pesky reporters. Now he’s playing one in State of Play.

In the film, Crowe is a crusading journalist who just can’t deal with how those gossipy blogs that are taking readers away from newspapers. Suddenly, he’s faced with a dilemma: How far will he go to get the real story about a famous politician who also happens to be his good friend?

The Internet? Don’t get him started.
"It has gone too far and I don’t think we’ll ever be able to pull it back. We’re in a culture now where people accept trivia as news, but it’s been driven by traditional news sources. If serious journalism has been undermined, journalists only have themselves to blame."

Daring to buddy up with reporters.
"Some of them really are my friends. No doubt, at certain points they are probably faced with the opportunity to make a lot of money if they decide to tell tales out of school about me. But, luckily, those friendships are solid and real. If they ever have taken advantage, it hasn’t been obvious to me."

( Read more... )

Australian Associated Press | AAP

At just 16, Canadian actress Sophie Traub scored her first lead role in John Polson's new thriller Tenderness, and found herself being mentored by Russell Crowe.

Traub, from Toronto, Ontario, plays Lori, a troubled teenager who forms a romantic obsession for Eric (played by Jon Foster), a boy who murdered his parents.

In a supporting role to the two young stars, Crowe is the police officer assigned to Eric's case, and Traub said the Oscar-winner was happy to share his acting expertise.

"I had such a wonderful experience with him. He was very warm and generous with me," the now 19-year-old Traub said from New York.

"He would take us aside in between takes and talk to us one-on-one and ask us questions and answer questions.

"He was generally very encouraging which was wonderful, and to have that support coming from someone like that was pretty amazing."

( Read more... )

Alan Doyle gave another Robin Hood update on his blog...

http://www.greatbigsea.com/about/GBS_AlansFTR.aspx

And elsewhere, someone posted a couple pics of the set...

Russell was given extra time on Letterman last night. The first time that's happened on any talk show. At one point he talked about an effort to protect some land in Steve Irwin's name from mining. He mentioned a site with a petition at www.savestevesplace.com.


The entire show can be downloaded here Xvid avi, 349MB

Russell on the Today Show can be viewed here.

Now we know what he was hiding under the hoodie!