Russell Crowe to Star in TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG From ASSASSIN'S CREED Director Justin Kurzel
Oscar winner Russell Crowe along with George MacKay (Captain Fantastic) have officially joined the cast of director Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang. The movie is based on Peter Carey’s novel, and follows notorious bushranger Ned Kelly (played by MacKay), one of the world’s greatest outlaws, and the colonial badlands from which he rose.
Deadline reports that Crowe and MacKay will join a cast that includes Travis Fimmel (Vikings), Sean Keenan (Strangerland), Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things), Harry Greenwood (Hacksaw Ridge), Thomasin McKenzie (My Abandonment) and Earl Cave (Born to Kill).
The script is by Shaun Grant, and filming for the production will begin in March 2018. They will be shooting in Victoria, Australia.
Crowe, who won the Oscar for his role in Gladiator, was last seen in Universal’s The Mummy reboot as Dr. Jekyl (and Mr. Hyde).
Kurzel last directed Michael Fassbender in Assassin's Creed.
So far no release date has been announced for True History of the Kelly Gang. Here's the description from the book:
“I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false.”
In True History of the Kelly Gang, the legendary Ned Kelly speaks for himself, scribbling his narrative on errant scraps of paper in semiliterate but magically descriptive prose as he flees from the police. To his pursuers, Kelly is nothing but a monstrous criminal, a thief and a murderer. To his own people, the lowly class of ordinary Australians, the bushranger is a hero, defying the authority of the English to direct their lives. Indentured by his bootlegger mother to a famous horse thief (who was also her lover), Ned saw his first prison cell at 15 and by the age of 26 had become the most wanted man in the wild colony of Victoria, taking over whole towns and defying the law until he was finally captured and hanged. Here is a classic outlaw tale, made alive by the skill of a great novelist.
