Jackman Makes Like Crowe

A wolverine is moving in as the Crowe flies the coop.

Hot off the blockbuster success of X-Men: The Last Stand, Hugh Jackman has been tapped to take over the role vacated by Russell Crowe in Baz Luhrmann's untitled, long-gestating Gone with the Wind-style Australian-based epic set to begin shooting early next year.

Jackman will play a rough-hewn cattle driver in the World War II-era film. His character strikes up an unlikely romance with an English aristocrat, played by Nicole Kidman, who inherits a ranch the size of Maryland. After English cattle barons attempt to take over her land, the two drive 2,000 head of cattle across miles of unforgiving Outback terrain only to reach the city of Darwin as it's being bombed by the Japanese.

Crowe was essentially scratched from the period piece after his reps were unable to resolve conflicts with the film's backer, 20th Century Fox, which demanded he waive script approval.

"Before I could tell them what I thought of the script, they'd moved on," the Oscar winner wrote in an email to Sydney's Morning Herald newspaper. "That's their choice."

Crowe expressed surprise by the decision, noting that when he read the second draft of the script, he thought it was"brilliant." He said he hoped to work with the Moulin Rouge! director in the future.

"I love Baz, he's a boy wonder, genius for sure," the actor added. "I trust that Baz will make the movie he wants to make and that's absolutely the way it should be."

This is the second time Crowe and Kidman have failed to hook up on the big screen. The duo was slated to costar in Jocelyn Moorehouse's Oz-based romantic drama Eucalpytus, but that project collapsed just before filming was supposed to begin because of problems with the script.

Hollywood trade reports had Jackman or Heath Ledger possibly playing the third lead in the Luhrmann film, a part described as "a dark rival for the heroine's love and land."

But with Crowe out, Jackman became the director's choice for the main part, according to Luhrmann.

"He just continues to astound in terms of his range, whether it's [his Tony-winning turn in] Boy from Oz or Wolverine," the helmer told the Hollywood Reporter. "He's always been a leading man, but he is moving toward being an iconic leading man, which is perfect for the story we're doing."

Luhrmann also let it be known that there were no hard feelings between him and his pal Crowe over the latter's departure.

"I know that Russell and I want to work together. The question is on what," the filmmaker told the trade. "Working with Russell in the future is something that I definitely look forward to doing."

Luhrmann and his all-Aussie cast are slated to start filming next February.

Jackman, meanwhile, has several films headed to theaters before then, first and foremost is the upcoming sci-fi epic, The Fountain, the buzz-garnering new film from Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream).

He's also teaming up with Scarlett Johansson in Woody Allen's comedy Scoop, is headlining Christopher Nolan's period drama The Prestige, about two rival magicians in turn of the century London, and he's lending his voice to the animated films Happy Feet and Flushed Away. He's also attached to a possible Wolverine spinoff.

As for Crowe, he's not wanting for work.

The thesp is set to reunite with his Gladiator director, Ridley Scott, and star opposite old Virtuosity nemesis Denzel Washington in the drug-themed drama American Gangster.