These days, if you’re famous and you die – particularly tragically young and in an unexpected way – people will start thinking about a movie of your life almost as soon as the coffin is closed.
Such is most definitely the case with Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, who died after being stabbed by a stingray’s barb on 4 September. Speculation began to rise that Irwin’s friend Russell Crowe would sign up to play the conservation-loving Aussie in a biopic that chronicled his work with the Australia Zoo and his outgoing antics on TV.
Now Crowe has taken time to slap the rumours down. "There's no truth to that whatsoever," Crowe told Comingsoon.net while doing press for A Good Year. "That's one of those appalling pieces of sh*t that come out of the press. While my friend's body is still warm, I'm being accused of doing commerce over his grave, and it absolutely disgusts me."
That said, he’s clearly supportive of a way to mark Irwin’s contribution to nature cinematically. "Should there be a movie about Steve? For sure. What an incredible and unique life he led. His childhood growing up with his mum and dad in a reptile park, but his ambitions turning that simple reptile park into the greatest zoo in Australia, and from my individual perspective, the place that really cares about the animals. What people really don't understand about Steven is Steven was, first and foremost, a conservationist, probably the most individually active conservationist in the world. What he stood for was far more than being the funny guy on TV. Serious people at serious universities realized who he really was."