26 June 2003
The Daily Telegraph - click
here for original source
Epic comes to Broken Hill
IF BRAD Pitt was not thrilled about the prospect of shooting The Fountain in Queensland, Confidential would just love to hear Leonardo DiCaprio's thoughts on filming Alexander the Great in Broken Hill.
Director Baz "BL" Luhrmann and Hollywood producer Dino de Laurentiis were yesterday in the NSW outback mining city scouting locations for the epic, to be shot next year.
The film, which also stars Nicole Kidman and is being backed by Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, was to be shot in Morocco but that location was abandoned following suicide attacks in Casablanca.
Andrew Plumer, project co-ordinator of Film Broken Hill, established last year to promote the region as a film destination, said Luhrmann and his location manager Phillip Roope visited Broken Hill in March to begin the series of location surveys.
Chamber of Commerce president Sharon Hocking said she had "heard that Broken Hill has been narrowed down to the last few for this film and we are going all out to get this for our community".
"I was told that they need 1000 horses. It's a great opportunity to further put Broken Hill on the map.
"We have the ideal location."
Broken Hill has played host to a number of films, most notably Mad Max and The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of The Desert.
Last year, when the Gold Coast was mooted as a location for The Fountain, which also stars Cate Blanchett, Pitt was reportedly unimpressed by the surrounds.