11 December 2002
Sydney Morning Herald - click here for
link to original source
Now Baz wants to take on Vegas with Moulin Rouge
Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin have taken New York by
storm with La Boheme and now the Australian duo have their sights set on a second Broadway
production and a production of Moulin Rouge in Las Vegas.
The husband and wife team say a stage version of their Oscar-winning film, Moulin Rouge,
will open in a casino in Las Vegas.
Luhrmann and Martin are also working on turning the 1992 cult movie, Strictly Ballroom,
into a show for Broadway.
The duo are the hottest property in US theatre after Sunday night's spectacular opening
night of La Boheme at Manhattan's Broadway Theater.
Reviewers from the conservative New York Times to the tabloid New York Post have written
glowing reviews of Luhrmann's and Martin's modernised version of the Puccini opera.
Luhrmann said plenty of work has already gone into the
Broadway-bound version of Strictly Ballroom.
"We've already done about six months' work on the show, including a workshop,"
Luhrmann told today's edition of Hollywood trade magazine, Variety.
Moulin Rouge, which won two Oscars for Martin in the art direction and costume categories,
should be a big hit in Sin City.
"It's going into a casino," Luhrmann told Variety.
As well as the three US stage productions, Luhrmann is leaving for the Middle East later
this week to start pre-production on his $US100 million ($A179.15 million) film epic,
Alexander The Great, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio.
"I'm leaving on Friday to go to Jordan to meet with the king and look at
horses," Luhrmann said.