It very nearly happened on Australia for director Baz Luhrmann but Crowe eventually walked out saying “I don’t do charity work” when his usual $20 million+ was not forthcoming.
Luhrmann soon went out and hired Hugh Jackman for the film (due out at the end of the year) and the Crowe/Kidman partnership never saw fruition.

Now word has come from MTV that director Doug Liman (Jumper, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) wants to cast Russell Crowe in his upcoming dramatic biopic of Valerie Plame which currently has Kidman down for the lead role.

Plame was a former a CIA officer who worked for the government for twenty years but had to retire in December 2005 when her identity was outed by an American journalist two and a half years prior.

Liman says he would love to hire Crowe to play the part of New York Times reporter Joe Wilson, the man who wrote the infamous piece “What I didn’t find in Africa”, a scatching attack on the Bush administration…

“I’d love Russell Crowe,” director Doug Liman enthused. “If you’ve met Joe, he’s a really strong guy. I’ve never met an actor stronger than Russell Crowe.”

“It’s the Valerie Plame story but you wouldn’t know it when Joe’s around,” Liman insisted. “I met with [Russell] for ‘Bourne Identity’ and I was terrified. The whole time I was in the room with him I was just scared of him. This is a scary dude! And Joe is kind of like that.”

I would love to see it happen but just remember Doug, offer him the right money because he don’t come cheap!