There’s been lot’s of news stories of the troubled times the Australian production Eucalyptus has been having, and now it’s all over as the film is postponed indefinitely due to script problems. The BBC have the news.
The √Ǭ£13m film’s set in New South Wales has been dismantled and crew members have been dismissed.
“We have agreed that the best thing to do is postpone shooting until the project’s foundation is solid,” said the film’s stars in a statement.
Bad weather and actor Geoffrey Rush’s withdrawal hampered early production.
But the film’s makers have not ruled out a return to the project at a later date…
…”We are confident that when the time is right this dedicated Australian production team will once again find a way to be on board,” continued the statement issued by Crowe, Kidman and the film’s director and producer.
It is quite a blow to the Australian Film Industry, especially when some of its biggest stars were lined up in lead roles.
Actor Hugo Weaving, who was also due to appear in Eucalyptus, told Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph that the film’s script was “an absolute gem”, saying it had attracted the strong cast.
Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe were playing lead roles in this locally produced movie, something which lent great credibility to the movie.
The Australian Premier even commented:
“Australian films have been very unimpressive in recent times. We needed a boost – we needed a good Australian made movie, a good Australian story,”
Doesn’t seem that’s the whole story though, from Reuters the quotes are a bit stronger. Hugo Weaving says regarding the officially cited reasons for halting production:
“That was a very dishonest position to take,” Weaving said. “I regard this script as an absolute gem. They should have come clean and said Russell needed some changes made to certain parts of the script.”
A further quote casts more doubts on the official statement:
Actor Jack Thompson told the Telegraph he agreed with Weaving about the quality of the script and said the rehearsals with Kidman and Moorhouse in recent weeks had gone well, with no requests for script changes to his knowledge.
Reuters are claiming that sources suggest Crowe wanted rewrites to squeeze Kidman into the lead female role originally written for a nineteen year old and had moved on to push for further changes on his own character. IMDB also has the rumour attached to the currently unknown status of the movie.
As always, it’ll be a long time before we probably know all the reasons behind it, and what really is true.
The last I heard is that he will direct the movie now.
These are some of Russell’s comments from an article today in the Sunday Telegraph, Feb 20.
Russell Crowe answers his critics and tells what really caused the postponement of the film Eucalyptus.
Crowe also reaffirmed his dedication to the movie and answered accusations that he was responsible for the delay, didn’t want to be outshone by his co-stars and wanted to direct the film.
“Oh, for goodness sake, what next? Perhaps I wanted to play Nicole’s role as well?
Yes, that must be it; Crowe needed nicer skirts.
I’m not the director, I am the executive producer of a floundering project that will take all the passionate advocacy I can muster to convince the powers that be to re-mount.
The superb craftsmanship in the house set at Bellingen is alone enough to embolden my heart to face the accountants.
I don’t have a problem with Hugo venting. I agree with most of what he said.
I fell in love with a magical and mysterious script by Michelle Joyner and Jocelyn Moorhouse 14 months ago. If I’ve tried to change anything, it has been the desire to change things — what could be the word — a reversionist? When I came on board to play a minor role, in a specified amount of weeks, it all seemed quite simple.
However, from that seed strange growths appeared in the script.
At one of the many narrative junctures, I was taken aback at the addition of a scene requiring me to expose my penis to the young Queen Elizabeth II.
Hugo hasn’t seen all the drafts, he hasn’t been in the boardroom and is not privy to all the comings and goings. He can call me whenever he likes. I called him last Saturday, but he didn’t answer.
I think this is a beautiful project that has suffered from too many lovers. There will be a period of five weeks or so while all the numbers are crunched and run, then we may get the opportunity to state a case for continuing.
The last thing we as an industry need is another under-performing film; the second-last thing we need is to show the film world an inability to get the job done. I remain responsible to the production and on behalf of it.”
Sounds like this headline should be retitled: “Eucalyptus halted because of issues with Crowe.”