Crowe accused of threatening to kill a producer

New Zealand-born actor Russell Crowe has been accused of threatening to kill a producer with his bare hands while filming the Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator.

According to a new book titled The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company called DreamWorks, written by Nicole LaPorte, Crowe had a heated disagreement with veteran producer Branko Lustig, 77, over pay for his assistants on the film, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported.

While filming 2000's Gladiator, which won seven Oscars, including best actor for Crowe, the actor is said to have telephoned the producer in the early hours of the morning, swearing at him and saying: "I will kill you with my bare hands".

Lustig, a survivor of the World War 2 Auschwitz concentration camp, was said to have called movie heavyweight Steven Spielberg, whose DreamWorks studio was backing the film, and asked to leave the production.

Crowe was also said to have been unhappy with what became his most famous line - "And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next - and had to be persuaded to deliver it in the film's climactic scene.

After doing so, he was said to have told director Ridley Scott he still thought it was a bad line: "but I'm the greatest actor in the world and I can make even **** sound good."