Russell Crowe has angrily denied reports that he was interested in playing the character of Steve Irwin in a movie about the Crocodile Hunter.(File Photo)     Photo Gallery >>>

¡¡  BEIJING, Sept. 26(Xinhuanet)-- Russell Crowe has angrily denied reports that he was interested in playing the character of Steve Irwin in a movie about the Crocodile Hunter.

    Crowe, a good friend of Irwin, said he was appalled at suggestions that he was planning to star in a biopic just weeks after the Australian's death.

    "It's appalling to me," Crowe said in an interview with television show Extra, "(It) offends me very deeply, so awful that I have to deal with millions of people thinking I would dance on my friend's grave."

    Reports said Crowe was already in talks with Universal about playing Irwin. One story cited an anonymous "insider" as saying Crowe once told Irwin he wanted to play him in a movie version of his life.

    Crowe also shed light on his departure from Baz Luhrmann's new film, an epic about the Australian outback starring Nicole Kidman, in June.

    "I do charity work, but I don't do charity work for major studios," Crowe said.

    "I just didn't want to work on that movie in the type of environment that was being created because of the needs of the budget."

    Crowe was replaced by another Australian actor, Hugh Jackman.

    The Luhrmann movie was due to begin production this month, but has been pushed back to February because of scheduling conflicts and budget debates with 20th Century Fox, reported a industry newspaper.

    Luhrmann, director of the hit musical Moulin Rouge, has described the film to Australian newspapers as a sweeping romance in the same vein as Gone with the Wind and on the scale of David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia.

    He said the film would be set in Australia from the mid 1930s leading up to the Japanese bombing of Darwin in World War Two. Enditem