Russell Crowe is set to take on the Roman Empire again in The Last Druid. It’ll see him re-team with Land Of Bad director William Eubank.
With Gladiator II right around the corner, you don’t need us to remind you that Russell Crowe once wowed audiences worldwide by single-handedly taking on the might of the Roman Empire with nothing more than a short sword, some trademark grumpiness and a can-do attitude. The film elevated Crowe to the very apex of Hollywood’s mountain of leading men and while Crowe isn’t quite at that lofty point any more, we absolutely love the niche the actor is carving out for himself these days.
Need a grumpy exorcist to give your horror flick some serious punch? Crowe’s your man. What about a grumpy driver with a serious case of road rage? Again, Crowe has you covered. What about a celtic druid, probably as grumpy as you can get because he’s the last of his kind and the merciless Roman Empire have killed of all of his brethren and exterminated his sacred religion from the world?
We know just the actor.
So does filmmaker William Eubank, who last worked with Crowe in the gritty (and rather good) war thriller, Land Of Bad, released earlier this year.
Eubank, whose other films include Underwater and low-budget thriller The Signal, has cast Crowe as the titular ‘last druid’ in a film about the period in history when the Roman Empire increased its territory and promoted the benefits of Roman civility by attempting to exterminate the Celtic religion, all in the name of cultural imperialism. In fact, we even saw Crowe leading this charge in the stunning first battle that opened Gladiator where he straight-up killed plenty of folks who were simply defending Rome’s incursion into their homeland.
That incursion extended to the British Isles where the druidic tradition faced a similar (and very grisly) fate.
According to Deadline, the movie ‘will tell the story of a Roman Emperor who discovers a secluded Druid stronghold in the mountains of Caledonia. A peaceful Celtic elder (Crowe) must take up arms to protect his family and people from annihilation.’
Trying to annihilate Crowe and/or his family has usually proved to be a bad move throughout much of the star’s filmography, so we’re pretty sure that this Roman Emperor is going to regret the move. We’re also hoping that Crowe goes ‘full druid’ with a mighty beard.
While we’re assuming this is a drama, it could of course be an action movie, have a horror feel or lean into other genre elements too (Eubank has dabbled in just about all of these genres). We don’t care, we’re just glad it’s happening. There’s no studio backing this one as yet, but it’ll appear at next week’s American Film Market. We’ll let you know how it fares when we hear more.
Any news on The Pope’s Exorcist 2 shall also be reported.
