Russell Crowe, Nicholas Hoult and Essie Davis head a strong cast in a film adaptation of Peter Carey's Booker Prize-winning novel True History of the Kelly Gang that will shoot in Victoria early next year.

Justin Kurzel​, who made his name with Snowtown then went on to shoot Macbeth and Assassin's Creed, will direct a script by Snowtown collaborator Shaun Grant, with Carey one of the film's executive producers.

Russell Crowe: cast in Ned Kelly film. Credit:Andrew Meares

Alongside Crowe (seen most recently in The Nice Guys and The Mummy), Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road) and Davis (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries), English actor George MacKay (Captain Fantastic) will play Kelly.

His connections with Australian film include appearing in Scott Hicks' The Boys Are Back in 2009 and, just recently, playing Hamlet opposite Daisy Ridley in Claire McCarthy's Ophelia in Prague.