The Weight will unite decorated actors Russell Crowe and Ethan Hawke. Crowe is an Oscar winner for his performance in the 2000 historical epic Gladiator, though he was nominated two additional times, for The Insider and A Beautiful Mind. While Hawke has never won an Oscar, he has also received multiple nods from the Academy, having been nominated for his performances in Training Day and Boyhood in addition to two screenplay nominations as the co-writer of Before Sunset and Before Midnight.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Hawke and Crowe are both set to star in The Weight, an upcoming movie set in 1933 Oregon. The movie, which was written by Shelby Gaines (Wildcat), Matthew Chapman (Consenting Adults, Runaway Jury), and Matthew Booi (Destination Fear) from a story by Booi and Leo Scherman (White Knuckles), will be directed by Padraic McKinley (Kingdom, Fightworld).
With a budget of $2.07 million drawn from the fund FFF Bayern, arranged by WME Independent and CAA Media Finance (who co-represent domestic rights while WME Independent solely handles international rights and Capelight Pictures puts it out in Germany), The Weight will begin shooting in Bavaria in summer 2025. Producers on the project are augenschein’s Jonas Katzenstein and Maximilian Leo, Under the Influence’s Ryan Hawke, and Fields Entertainment’s Simon and Nathan Fields. Construction Film’s Veronica Ferres will co-produce while Ralf Berchtold will executive produce. Read the synopsis of the movie below:
After the death of his wife, Samuel Murphy (Hawke) is imprisoned in a labor camp run by Clancy, an unscrupulous overseer (Crowe). Murphy only wants to escape and regain custody of his daughter, Penny, but becomes entangled in Clancy’s perilous gold smuggling scheme, facing threats from both the treacherous wilderness and potential betrayal within his own group.
What This Means For The Weight
It Marks A Major First
The Weight continues a recent trend for Russell Crowe movies, many of which have seen the actor take on a variety of complicated or outright villainous roles. This includes his performance as a man who takes road rage to the next level in 2020’s Unhinged, the manipulative billionaire Jake Foley in 2022’s Poker Face, and the Russian crime lord Nikolai Kravinoff in Sony’s 2024 Marvel comic book adaptation Kraven the Hunter.
Russell Crowe directed Poker Face in addition to starring in the movie and writing the screenplay.
In addition to providing Crowe with another villain role, The Weight marks the first time that he and Hawke have performed together in a movie. In fact, the only previous title in which they both appear onscreen is the 2006 documentary Boffo! Tinseltown’s Bombs and Blockbusters, which incorporates archive footage from separate movies which starred the actors.
Our Take On The Weight
It Is Also A Showcase For Ethan Hawke
The Weight could become much more than a showcase for Russell Crowe’s ability to portray a villain. The new Ethan Hawke movie allows the iconic four-time Oscar nominee a chance to butt heads with a titan of the industry, showcasing his range in a brand-new way after many years of taking on a variety of different genres, including horror (The Black Phone), sci-fi (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets), Western (The Magnificent Seven), and more.
The Weight Sees Both Stars Returning To A Comfort Zone
Ethan Hawke And Russell Crowe Have Both Starred In Period Pieces
Although working with one another will mark a first for both Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe, the fact that The Weight is a period-set historical drama sees both of them returning to familiar territory. For Crowe, this extends far beyond his role in the original Gladiator movie, which was set in Ancient Rome. He has appeared in multiple other historical features set before the 20th century, including playing the title role in Ridley Scott’s 2010 movie Robin Hood, leading Darren Aronofsky’s biblical drama Noah, and starring opposite Christian Bale in the James Mangold Western 3:10 to Yuma.
[Ethan Hawke] played major character King Aurvandill War-Raven [in The Northman.]
Ethan Hawke does not have quite as many iconic historical roles under his belt as Russell Crowe. However, The Weight comes just a few years after he appeared in Robert Eggers’ The Northman. In the period epic, set in 895, he played major character King Aurvandill War-Raven. That is his most prominent such role, as many of his other works have been modernized or are set in the near future rather than the distant past, including his turn as the title character in the 2000 Shakespeare adaptation Hamlet, which was set in modern-day New York instead of Middle Ages Denmark.
Read More
Although Russell Crowe’s role as Maximus Decimus Meridius is one of the most iconic of his career, the character’s death at the end of the movie prevented him from appearing in the 2024 legacy sequel, which was also directed by Ridley Scott. Read more information about the new and returning characters in the Gladiator 2 cast here.
In addition to collaborating on Gladiator and Robin Hood, the actor and director also worked together on three other movies as of the time of writing, namely 2006’s A Good Year, 2007’s American Gangster, and 2008’s Body of Lies. Read ScreenRant‘s ranking of every Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe movie here.
Ethan Hawke’s role as King Aurvandill War-Raven is based in Norse legend, continuing writer-director Robert Eggers’ career-long interest in folklore and mythology. ScreenRant has broken down the Viking history behind The Northman here.
Source: THR