Russell Crowe Denies He Will Play Rupert Murdoch

SYDNEY - Russell Crowe has taken to Twitter to deny U.K. media reports that he'll play Rupert Murdoch in a new film based on Good Times, Bad Times, the memoirs of former Sunday Times editor Sir Harold Evans.

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"I haven't been approached by anyone to play Rupert Murdoch. That's just a beat up. I am off to build a boat. Will be gone for quite some time," Crowe tweeted Tuesday, referring to his role in Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, which starts shooting in New York next month.

On Monday, the London Evening Standard reported "there has been talk of Russell Crowe playing Rupert Murdoch with Colin Firth as Harry Evans."

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Leon le Cash, who is producing the film through production company What's It all About?, was quoted as saying “the film will be a drama, when Citizen Kane meets All the President’s Men, either for the big screen or television. It is very early days as the option deal with Harry was only just completed. No actors or even writers have been signed up yet."

Nevertheless, Good Times, Bad Times would seem to mirror in part the events surrounding the current Leveson inquiry in the U.K. dealing with News Corp’s newspapers’ relationship to politicians that have come to light as a result of the News Of the World phone hacking scandal.

The film will focus on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s controversial dealings with Murdoch. She was in Downing Street when Murdoch bought The Times in 1981 and, according the Standard, evidence suggests she bent the rules to facilitate the deal in return for favorable publicity for the Tories.