26 June 2003
The Australian - click
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Movie
greats eye SA for major hit
By Richard Sproull and Andrew Robertson
BAZ Luhrmann has talked with the kings of Morocco and Jordan about lifting Alexander the Great out of the history books and on to the silver screen.
But the backdrop for the $225 million epic could be the red gibber plain around Broken Hill.
Luhrmann and Hollywood producer Dino De Laurentiis jetted into NSW's Silver City yesterday ahead of two days of scouting locations for the movie, based on the Valerio Manfredi novels, due to start filming in September next year.
"I've been here before and already done quite extensive research work," said Luhrmann, who first looked around the city in March.
"We've been looking at this for over a year, and I mean the very fact that Dino has come all the way from Los Angeles . . . and that we're here now pretty much says what we think of it.
"The potentiality of it is deeply exciting to us. There are real hurdles we've got to overcome but if we can overcome those hurdles, you could be our number one (location)."
Other countries, including Tunisia and Mexico, are also keen to stage the film.
Leonardo Di Caprio is lined up to star as the king of ancient Macedonia, who was born in 356BC and died at just 33 years of age in 323BC. Nicole Kidman will star as his mother, Olympia.
De Laurentiis is in familiar territory, having produced epics such as Hannibal, Attila, War and Peace, The Great War and Waterloo.
Luhrmann, who directed Moulin Rouge and Strictly Ballroom in Australia, has plenty of big-ticket backing in Hollywood for the project, including support from Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.
The movie was originally to be filmed in Morocco. But a suicide bombing in May put an end to those plans and Luhrmann has spent time in the Flinders Ranges and other remote parts of Australia looking for the right backdrop.