Australia - Preview
Preview by Jack Foley
AUSTRALIA is a sweeping romantic adventure event film created by internationally acclaimed and award winning writer, producer and director, Baz Luhrmann.
It’s an epic and romantic action adventure, set in that country on the explosive brink of World War II. In it, an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) travels to the faraway continent where she meets a rough-hewn local (Hugh Jackman) and reluctantly agrees to join forces with him to save the land she inherited.
Together, they embark upon a transforming journey across hundreds of miles of the world’s most beautiful yet unforgiving terrain, only to face the bombing of the city of Darwin by the Japanese forces that attacked Pearl Harbor . With his new film, Luhrmann is painting on a vast canvas, creating a cinematic experience that brings together romance, drama, adventure and spectacle.
Baz Luhrmann, the man who reignited the Hollywood musical with Moulin Rouge, has spent two years creating the biggest movie ever made about Australia – a big movie that tells a big story about a big country.
Filmed throughout the Northern Territory, Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, the land of Australia plays a pivotal role in this captivating work. Catherine Martin, the double Academy Award winning Production and Costume Designer, will again inspire with her visual expertise, re-creating outback Australia and Darwin of the 1930s.
Joining Kidman and Jackman is a who’s who of Australian acting talent including Australian acting legends Ray Barrett, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson and Bill Hunter. They star alongside David Wenham, Ben Mendelsohn, John Jarrett, Kerry Walker, Barry Otto, David Gulpilil and David Ngoombujarra.
And no expense has been spared in generating the spectacle, it seems, with a reported $130 million budget going into realising big set pieces, including Japanese bomb raids on Australia, panoramic cattle drives and intimate moments of blazing desire between the leads.
Informing US magzine Entertainment Weekly of what to expect, a confident Luhrmann – who describes the project as his most personal to date – commented: “‘This is a film where you have very high comedy, and then you have romance, and then you have action, and then you have drama. ‘If this were a meal, I’m not serving sushi: It’s a banquet.’‘
Australia opens in UK cinemas on December 26 (or Boxing Day). View early photos or watch the trailer