Tenderness Is The Word For Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe will be starring in a movie called "Tenderness," and no the title doesn't refer to the feeling of having been hit in the head with a phone. The title refers to the story of a violent teen whom Crowe's cop character, Lieutenant Cristofuoro, is determined to decode, digging into the boy's complicated past.

This will reunite Crowe with Australian actor/director John Polson who co-starred with him in "Prisoners of the Sun" and "The Sum of Us." Polson also played token Aussie Billy Baird in "Mission: Impossible 2" and he directed "Hide and Seek" with Robert DeNiro and Dakota Fanning. "Tenderness" is classified as an indie thriller, produced by New York's GreeneStreet Films, and the story is adapted by Emil Stern from the book by Robert Cormier.

The movie is set to shoot in May, wrapping in time for Crowe to move on to Ridley Scott's "American Gangster" in July. Then, to prove he's keeping busy and not just doing gigs with his band, Crowe will move on to Baz Luhrmann's romantic epic that co-stars one of Crowe's close Aussie friends, Nicole Kidman. And, oddly enough, this film has not yet been officially named. Clearly, Russell Crowe is a nonstop force with no industry boundaries in his way.