Russell Crowe has confirmed he's to be a father for the second time

Jan 17, 2006, 15:21 GMT

Sydney - New Zealand-born actor Russell Crowe has confirmed he's to become a father for the second time with Australian wife Danielle Spencer.

The Sydney resident also told reporters outside the Beverly Hilton Hotel that he would star opposite Nicole Kidman in an 'Australian version of 'Gone with the Wind',' Australia's AAP news agency reported Tuesday from the Golden Globe awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

'Yes, Dani is pregnant again,' Crowe was quoted as saying. 'She's due in July, so it's a French conception.'

Crowe, 41, told reporters that his debut opposite Kidman would be in a film to be directed by another Sydney resident, Baz Luhrmann. Luhrmann directed Kidman in 'Moulin Rouge' and in a recent perfume commercial.

'It's like the Australian version of 'Gone with the Wind',' the 'Gladiator' star said. 'It's set in the Australian country in the early 1930s. Baz will have to build a whole community where we're going to shoot, since it's a very remote area.'

The script will be by Luhrmann and fellow Australian Stuart Beattie, who wrote the 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' 'Collateral' and 'Derailed.'

The production of Australian story 'Eucalyptus', which was to bring Kidman and Crowe together for the first time, was cancelled at the last minute in 2004. The abandonment came just as shooting was about to begin near Coffs Harbour, north of Sydney, where Crowe has a farm.

The project was to have reunited Crowe with director Jocelyn Moorhouse and producer Linda House. The trio worked together on 1991's 'Proof', one of Crowe's earliest films.

It's said that personal differences led to a power struggle among big egos and the ditching of a project that was to have showcased the best of the Australian film industry and the talents of its homegrown stars.