Russell Crowe was most recently seen on the Showtime political drama
The Loudest Voice, about TV kingmaker Roger Ailes and the rise of Fox News. Now, instead of a character who enrages American Democrats, Crowe is headed home to play an Irishman who enrages Australian authorities.
Crowe is slated to star in
The True History of the Kelly Gang, based on Peter Carey’s best-selling 2000 novel. If a movie based on Kelly’s life sounds familiar, that’s because the late Heath Ledger starred in a similar movie – entitled
Ned Kelly, which came out in 2003. Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger also starred in a famously quirky version of the Kelly story back in 1970. This time around, Crowe plays Harry Power, who was born in Waterford in 1819, but was sent to a penal colony in Australia. It was there that Power teamed up with a younger troublemaker by the name of Ned Kelly (played by Brit George MacKay), whose own parents made their way to Australia by way of Ireland. Kelly, of course, would go on to become a notorious outlaw in the eyes of British authorities in Australia, and a folk hero of sorts to many struggling Irish Catholics.