The man behind the gladiator stare-down that silenced his enemies and the mind that was more beautiful than words, Russell Crowe, is returning to the big screen with the release of his new film, “The Water Diviner.”

The Hollywood megastar was mobbed by hordes of fans who flocked Incheon International Airport on Saturday to catch a glimpse of the 50-year-old Crowe on his visit to Korea to promote his latest film, which will be released in local theatres on Jan. 28.

Crowe both directed and starred in the dramatic war tale, alongside Jai Courtney and Olga Kurylenko. The war epic follows the story of an Australian man who travels to Turkey in 1919 after the Battle of Gallipoli during World War I to track down the remains of his three missing sons.

“I have always been very much a narrative-based actor. I choose my projects very carefully,” said Crowe during a news conference held at The Ritz-Carlton, Seoul hotel in Gangnam-gu on Monday.

“I call it the goose bump rule,” he continued. “If I’m reading a script and if I have a physical reaction, then that’s usually the movie that I do. ... For me, it’s always about the story.”

Although the actor and producer has already spent a fair share of time in the director’s seat, with a handful of documentary shorts, “The Water Diviner” marks Crowe’s feature film directorial debut.

“Overall, the desire to be a director has always been there for a long time, but I was just waiting for the right moment. I wasn’t actively searching for it. In a strange way, it found me,” Crowe said.

“And when I read the script (‘The Water Diviner’) I had that essential, physical reaction to it; there was one other layer as well, and that was the desire and responsibility for that particular story.”

Crowe shared that as a New Zealand native who has lived in Australia for more than half of his life, the film and its dramatic depiction of the Battle of Gallipoli is a storyline that truly hit close to home.

“‘The Water Diviner’ covers many different subjects, really, but it’s about the universality of grief,” he explained. “Here is Australia and New Zealand, essentially forced into a war because of their connections to England ... and the reality of that situation only started to dawn on people when the body bags started to come.

“Hundreds of thousands of young Australians lost their lives and at that point in time the population was very small, so the effect on the nation was gigantic and it still resonates today,” said the actor, noting his thoughts that many Koreans may also be able to connect to the film’s storyline considering the country’s history of war.

Crowe went on to credit much of his directorial know-how and education to famed director and Hollywood legend Ridley Scott ― the man behind iconic films such as “Blade Runner,” “Gladiator,” “Alien” and “Black Hawk Down.”

Since 2000, the actor-director duo has created five films together, most notably “Gladiator,” which landed Crowe an Oscar for his leading role.

“ The reason that we (Crowe and Ridley) keep working together is because we enjoy each other’s company ― and that’s intellectually and creatively,” said Crowe.

“A lot of people who view our relationship said that we argue all the time, but we don’t, we discuss,” he continued. “So in all, I probably spent two years of my life sitting next to Ridley on film sets ... I used to make a joke about it and say, it’s like getting to hold paints for a grandmaster like Titian.”

The Water Diviner made its world premiere in Australia on Dec. 26 last year and became the highest grossing Australian film of 2014 in less than a week, raking in around $6.32 million in its first week.

The war epic will open in theaters nationwide Wednesday.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)