Production is due to start in Australia later this year on The Water Diviner, an historical drama which will star and be directed by Russell Crowe.
Set just after WW1, the plot follows an Australian man who journeys to Turkey to search for his two sons who disappeared after the battle of Gallipoli.
The news was broken by Deadline.com, which reported the film will be produced by Troy Lum and Andrew Mason for Hopscotch Features and Keith Rodger of Crowe’s Fear Of God Films.
The original screenplay is by Andrew Knight and Andrew Anastasios. IF understands the project has been submitted to this month’s Screen Australia board meeting.
Hopscotch Features has a first-look deal with Universal Pictures for Australia and New Zealand, a relationship which is yet to bear fruit.
Crowe was scheduled to direct a segment of Sydney Unplugged, an omnibus movie to be produced by Tropfest founder John Polson and Arclight Films’ Gary Hamilton. Also attached as directors for that project were Liev Schreiber, Anthony LaPaglia, Alex Proyas, David Michod, Ivan Sen, Ray Lawrence, John Curran, Kieran Darcy-Smith and Rachel Ward.
Intended as an ode to Sydney, the film was due to shoot last year but was stymied by a law suit in Paris by French producer Emmanuel Benbihy, who claimed it infringed the copyright of his Cities Of Love films.
The case has dragged on in the Paris courts and there is no resolution yet.