Australian actor & X-Men star Hugh Jackman will star opposite Australian Oscar winner Nicole Kidman in an upcoming not-yet-titled epic.
The role was initially supposed to go to Russell Crowe but it has been reported that he turned it down because of money, location & script issues.
Before the decision to cast Jackman, several actors, including Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger, had been mentioned as a possible replacement for Crowe.
The movie's director Baz Luhrmann said: I rarely make a film and my process is unorthodox, but this fell into place nicely with Hugh, which is a tremendously strong choice to star against Kidman.

The story of the movie has Kidman as an English aristocrat who battles with cattle barons eying her land. In the struggle, she gets help from Jackman in shifting 2,000 cattle across the Outback. Set in the 1930s and 1940s, it will have a scene recreating the bombing of the far-north city of Darwin by Japanese fighter bombers in World War II. Filming is set to begin in February.