No, not in our hearts, and no, they're not about to CG Russell Crowe in over Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black like they pulled with Hayden Christensen and the poor sap who played the original ghost of Anakin Skywalker kickin' it on the Ewok world. Although, come to think of it, I wouldn't mind seeing if Crowe could handle the climax of Seven better than WHAT'S IN DA BOOOOOX? did.
Anyway, Brad Pitt bailed out on State of Play, a movie he'd been trying to make for two years, but he couldn't settle on a script. Russell Crowe has stepped in to pick up the slack, Variety says.
Crowe joins Edward Norton, Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman and Robin Wright Penn, who were all locked into pay-or-play deals when Brad Pitt abruptly exited the project just before Thanksgiving. Producers are Andrew Hauptman and Working Title partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Matthew Michael Carnahan wrote the script.
Crowe will play a politico-turned-journalist who spearheads his newspaper's investigation into a killing that leads to a fast-rising pol (Norton). The journalist faces two conflicts: He once ran campaigns for the pol and was his confidant, and the journo develops a romance with the pol's estranged wife (Wright Penn).
Unclear is whether Universal will take legal action against Pitt after issuing a statement upon his departure that it would leave all options open. Pitt's reps at the time indicated he wanted to make the movie but wasn't pleased with the script.
