Production of "Eucalyptus", starring Australian Oscar-winners Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, has been scuttled reportedly due to Crowe's oversize ego and hassles over script, reported the New York Post.

The "A Beautiful Mind" star, who clashed with the writer-cum-director Jocelyn Moorhouse over the script, started introducing his own script changes during rehearsals, causing tension.

A "crisis meeting" believed to involve Crowe, Moorhouse and two other producers failed to appease Crowe, and the project has been indefinitely postponed, just three days before shooting was due to start.

Producer Fox Searchlight Pictures' president Peter Rice announced: "After consulting all the creative elements involved in 'Eucalyptus', we have collectively agreed that the screenplay is not where we need it to be. For that reason, we are postponing the production."

This isn't the first time cantankerous Crowe had objected to scripts. The former "Gladiator" screenwriter John Logan claims he was fired "because Russell Crowe was dissatisfied".

Logan's replacement, Bill Nicholson, too said that Crowe had complained about his character's final lines.

But after director Ridley Scott convinced Crowe to use the script and he won the Best Actor Oscar, "Russell said 'It was (bleep) but I am the greatest actor in the world and I can make even (bleep)sound good,'" Nicholson was quoted as saying.