Russell Crowe To Star In Gabriele Muccino-Helmed ‘Fathers And Daughters’ For Voltage



Voltage Films has set Russell Crowe to star in the Gabriele Muccino-directed Fathers And Daughters, which instantly establishes this film as a hot sales title for AFM. The film is a love story between a father and daughter who live in Manhattan 25 years apart. The story moves back and forth between the 1980s where a famous novelist and widower struggles with mental illness as he tries to raise his 5-year old daughter; then it shows that daughter as a 30-year old woman in contemporary Gotham who battles her own demons that stem from that turbulent childhood. The script was written by Brad Desch (Shotgun Lovesongs).

Fathers And Daughters will be produced by Voltage Productions’ Craig J. Flores and Nicolas Chartier, and Busted Shark Productions’ Sherryl Clark. Exec producing are Crowe and his Fear Of God Films partner Keith Rodger. Romilda De Luca is also exec producer. Voltage Pictures will handle foreign sales, which get underway at AFM. They are circling a major actress to play the daughter. The film preps in December.

Said Muccino: “This is a performance-driven movie, and therefore I couldn’t ask for a better actor than Russell to deliver this intensely emotional drama. It’s edgy, heart-wrenching, and uplifting at the same time. To me, it feels like a classic American movie that recalls the great character dramas of the 70s like Kramer Vs. Kramer and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.”

While Crowe never exactly went away, he has certainly stepped up the marquee roles to a level reminiscent of when he played Gladiator’s Maximus and A Beautiful Mind‘s John Nash. Crowe most recently starred in Man Of Steel and Les Miserables, and will next play the title character in the Darren Aronofsky-directed Biblical epic Noah, and reteams with A Beautiful Mind scribe Akiva Goldsman in Goldsman’s directorial debut Winter’s Tale. Crowe is also prepping his feature directorial debut, The Water Diviner.

Crowe is repped by WME; Muccino by CAA and Untitled and Desch by ICM Partners and Management 360. Dominic Rustam negotiated for Voltage.