Ouch! That had to hurt! Golden boy Russell Crowe isn’t used to rejection (in ANY arena) so to be turned down by Australian director Bruce Beresford for being too old to play in his new Vietnam movie… well, that had to sting a little, even if it is the truth.

As the acclaimed director points out, this was a battle fought mostly by very young guys and any realistic movie about this time period needs to be casted as such. Case in point would be the very young and dashingly disturbed Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now (can you believe he was ever THAT young!) but let’s get back to Beresford’s film.

The movie Long Tan tells the story of how 108 American and Australian soldiers fought off 2,500 Viet Cong troops in a rubber tree plantation in Vietnam with an incredible mix of drama, tragedy and heroism sprinkled with Australian humor in the heat of battle. Sounds like a tasty film-salad.

Producer Martin Walsh has left the casting up to his capable director Beresford (who just finished shooting The Contract with Morgan Freeman in the lead role) and with their budget of about $42 million, they’ll most likely shoot this piece of heroic Australian history in Sydney and north Queensland. The Crowe-free war film should be released around Anzac Day 2008, so mark your calendars and please... don't say the word 'old' around Russell.  He's a bit touchy right now.