Russell Crowe has signed on to replace Brad Pitt in Universal pic State of Play.
Washington, Dec 4 : Russell Crowe has signed on to replace Brad Pitt in Universal pic 'State of Play'.
The development means that the studio will be able to start work on the movie as per schedule.
Pitt finalised his decision to quit on Wednesday, Nov 21, following two weeks of struggle and meetings with director Kevin Macdonald.
His camp revealed that the reason he opted out of the movie was because of the final direction of the shooting script. The initial script had been penned by Matthew Michael Carnahan, who adapted the Paul Abbott-created British miniseries, but then changed hands several times, from Peter Morgan, Tony Gilroy and Billy Ray, and Pitt deemed that his vision had been lost in the re-write.
The actor was the first one on board after Universal and producers Andrew Hauptman and Working Title partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner landed the project after a hot bidding battle.
With the writer's strike on, Pitt wanted to till it was over to get a final rewrite that brought the film back to Carnahan's original. Universal however, liked the rewritten script better.
The talks prevented the movie from making its original November 15 production start date. Universal considers Pitt to have walked out of a pay or play commitment and is leaving open the option to sue the actor if it cannot recast his role in time to keep the other actors in place.
Pitt's camp however disputes that he violated such a deal or that he ever approved a final script.
Sources revealed that the actor did not want to drop out of the movie, of which he has been the driving force for 16 months, reports Variety.
Universal then started talks with Crowe.
The Aussie will now be playing the role of a politico-turned-journalist whose loyalties are tested when he spearheads a newspaper's investigation into a murder that leads to the fast-rising politician whose campaigns the journo once ran.
He will be joining a confirmed cast of Edward Norton, Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman and Robin Wright Penn.
ANI