New Zealand born actor Russell Crowe has confirmed plans to make an overdue directorial debut with World War I drama The Water Diviner, after two previous efforts were scuppered by the media – but only if he can do it on his own terms.
”It was probably time [to direct] 10 years ago, but if you’re engaged in making movies as a career then you have to work within cycles that come up,” Crowe explains while promoting new film Man of Steel. ‘
‘The two previous times that the cycle has been right, we didn’t get the production together before that cycle changed. Both times in fact, it was because some arsehole took to newspapers and prematurely announced what we were trying to do.
”So that’s a massive pain in the neck when that happens and it’s just happened again now.”
Despite the unwanted press attention, Crowe feels the pieces are falling into place for The Water Diviner, set in Turkey in 1919 in which an Australian father searches for his two sons, missing since the battle for Gallipoli.
”It’s not that far away,” he says. ”We have probably what others would describe as an embarrassment of riches in terms of how we can finance it, but every different person that you take money from has different rules and exceptions.
”I don’t intend to make a film unless I have completely final cut.”
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– Sydney Morning Herald
