Russell Crowe Joins Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jared Harris in ROTHKO

Nowhere Boy and Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson is in the process of developing her next film project Rothko, and she’s managed to bring together a great cast of talent.

Russell Crowe is set to star in the film as world renowned abstract painter Mark Rothko, and he joins the likes of Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Nowhere Boy), Michael Stuhlbarg (Shirley, The Shape of Water), Jared Harris (Chernobyl, Lincoln) and Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale, Black Narcissus), who will play Kate Rothko.

The film is an adaptation of the book The Legacy of Mark Rothko by Lee Seldes, which focuses on “the true story of Kate Rothko’s uncompromising 'David vs Goliath' fight against a corrupt elite to protect her late father’s legacy and bring his art back to the people.”

Sam Taylor-Johnson said in a statement, "Rothko is not just a movie about the great artist, but rather a timeless story about right versus wrong. It’s Kate Rothko’s journey to protect the seminal paintings from the corrupt men who betrayed her father and stole his art; it is a reckoning with men in positions of power who try everything to destroy her father's legacy.”

Here’s the description from the book:

At the time of Mark Rothko's apparent suicide in 1970, the deeply troubled, pioneering artist of Abstract Expressionism was at the height of fame and financial success; yet within months of the funeral, his three trusted friends, acting as executors, relinquished his entire legacy of 800 paintings to the powerful, international Marlborough Galleries (run by Frank Lloyd) for a fraction of their real worth on terms suspiciously unfavorable to the estate. The suit that Rothko's daughter brought against the executors and Marlborough rocked the art world with its shocking revelations of corruption in the international art trade: from the deceptions practiced on Rothko when he was alive to the scandals after his death involving conspiracies and cover-ups, double dealings and betrayals, missing paintings and manipulated markets, phony sales and laundered profits, forgery and fraud.

This sounds like it will make for an interesting and frustrating film, the script of which was written by Lara Wood. The film will be produced by Jared Freedman (Rising Son, The Carter, Like Water), David Silverton (Rising Son), Sam Taylor-Johnson and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Jonathan Schwartz and Logan Lerman are executive producing.

Source: THR