Russell Crowe makes his first Netflix starring turn in Unabom

Russell Crowe was once an actor at the top of the game. He was nominated for an Oscar three straight years from 2000 through 2002, and many of his movies were box office smashes. And then he, well...went away.

What happened exactly? Who knows? Many actors go into a slump. Crowe hasn't been invisible, but he certainly has not reached the kind of critical and commercial success he had earlier in his career. He is unlikely to get back to that level again.

But he hasn't stopped trying. This includes starring in an upcoming Netflix film about Ted Kaczynski, otherwise known as the Unabomber, titled Unabom. Crowe will play the role of one of Kaczynski's Harvard professors, Henry Murray.

Russell Crowe lands a featured role on Netflix's Unabom

The movie is based on real-life events, and Murray subjected Kaczynski to controversial psychological experiment, which likely led to his later-life actions. Between 1978 and 1995, the Unabomber set off explosives directed at universities and airlines that caused the death of three people.

Kaczynski was apprehended at his cabin in Montana after a lengthy FBI investigation.

There is no known release date for the film, as production has not yet begun in full. We know some of the cast, and Unabom will be directed by Janus Metz, who has also directed such projects as All the Old Knives. The script was written by Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves.

Besides Crowe, the young Kaczynski will be played by Jacob Tremblay, who has performed in such titles as Doctor Sleep and Queen of Bones. Shailene Woodley will play an FBI agent, Joanne Miller, and Netflix viewers might have seen her work in Ferrari and To Catch a Killer. Annabelle Wallis will play Henry Murray's Harvard collegue, Chrtiana Morgan.

Wallis has been seen in films such as Annabelle and Tag, as well as the Netflix series, Peaky Blinders.

Crowe will not play the lead role, but will be a featured actor, and this marks his first Netflix original film starring role. His recent movies, like Land of Bad, have taken off in popularity after being shown on Netflix. The streamer hopes to build on that with Unabom.

Unabom cast:

• Jacob Tremblay as the young Ted Kaczynski
• Russell Crowe as Henry Murray, Kaczynski’s psychology professor at Harvard
• Shailene Woodley as FBI agent Joanne Miller, the woman tasked with hunting down Kaczynski
• Annabelle Wallis as Christiana Morgan, Professor Murray's academic partner and co-director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic

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