Russell Crowe touted to star in Bodyline the movie

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Well, they're remaking Bodyline into a movie again (well, first time around it was a mini-series but you get the idea). Says producer Peter Clifton :

"We want to tell the story warts and all and that includes the fact that Bradman really only ever had one true friend -- the great Archie Jackson, who died of tuberculosis when he was 22. Numerous sources have told us Bradman never had any true male friends apart from Jackson and once he died, his wife Jesse was his only real friend."

Reading between the lines, I wouldn't be surprised if they portrayed Jackson and Bradman's relationship with latent homosexual overtones similar to Peter Weir's Gallipoli. Even more disturbing is the rumor that Holly Valance is rumoured to play Jessie Bradman. Ugh! A better idea is Russell Crowe touted to play Australian captain Bill Woodfull. I like the idea - Crowe would portray Woodfull as the original Captain Grumpy! Maybe they can use my idea of a gladiator style entrance. I can just picture the scene where Woodfull gets struck on the heart by Harold Larwood, quickly followed by Crowe marching down the pitch and whacking Larwood on the back of the head with his cricket bat. And imagine Crowe's rendition of Woodfull's famous line to Plum Warner:

"There are two f***ing teams out there. One of them is f***ing trying to play f***ing cricket, you Pommie w***er!"

Casting Don Bradman is the big challenge. Clifton has searched cricket clubs over Australia for a cricketer to play the role of the Don after consulting with Ian Chappell:

"We have to have characters who can play cricket properly, as well as being good actors, so we can achieve the authenticity needed for this film. Otherwise, we believe there would be a serious flaw in the movie if our actors couldn't play cricket."

Chappelli has a great cricketing brain but I don't know if he's the go-to man when it comes to movie making. A film needs to tell a story through high quality acting, not well executed pull shots. Sure, coach the actor to bring his cricketing skills up to scratch but I don't think plucking Trev from the local cricket club to play Don Bradman makes for good art. They're also searching for someone to play Douglas Jardine. Can you go past the original Douglas Jardine - Hugo Weaving? I can see him adopting an Agent Smith from the Matrix persona: "Welcome to the Gabba, Mr Bradman".

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Posted by JC on Thu 26 Oct

4 comments

Oh yes, and then Don can pull some Neo-style bullet-time acrobatics to the bodyline balls. :)

Don: "What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bouncers?"
Bill: "No, Don. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to."

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Posted by Timbo on 2006-10-26 14:53:19

LOL to the bullet-time acrobatics - I can totally see that! Or Don standing his ground as Larwood bowls a bouncer then executes a devastating pull shot as he utters cooly "dodge this", sending the cricket ball into the skull of one of the nearby fielders.

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Posted by JC on 2006-10-26 16:28:25

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