28 June 2003
The Advertiser - click
here for original source
We need
real troops, says film director
By Maria
Moscaritolo in Canberra
AUSTRALIA'S deal to clinch the epic film Alexander the Great hangs on one thing – the provision of hardened soldiers to play the conqueror's army.
Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann said yesterday that without manpower from the Australian Defence Force the film would go overseas.
"If we knew we had these 200 troops tomorrow, it's a done thing," he told The Advertiser yesterday.
"Without it, we're gone, we can't really do it. This isn't just a `gee, wouldn't it be nice', this is technical reality."
The Outback town of Broken Hill is the hot favourite to stage the $300 million blockbuster which will star Leonardo DiCaprio as the king of ancient Macedonia and Nicole Kidman as his mother, Olympia.
But the man who reinvented the movie musical said he needed the real thing to portray Alexander's tough invading army – extras and actors would not do."We have one singular problem – New Zealand was able to give some military support to Lord of the Rings – and without some military component we'll never be able to make it because you can't actually fake that element.
"We need a few hundred soldiers, or cadets, or police . . . we really need guys who can bivouac down and be in the desert, otherwise we just can't do it."
Luhrmann met Prime Minister John Howard yesterday to make his pitch, accompanied by Hollywood producer Dino De Laurentiis.
A spokesman for Mr Howard said the Government wanted to see the film made here and was seriously considering the request for troops.
The already stretched ADF would have to be consulted before any decision were made.
Who pays the soldiers' costs would be worked out once the support was guaranteed, Mr Luhrmann said.
Still in enthusiastic pitch mode, he warned other countries were lobbying aggressively to host the movie and the jobs and industry dollars it would bring.
"This is our home and we want to make films from here," he said.
"To the extent that he (Mr Howard) can look into it and help out . . . everybody's enthusiastic because it's about focusing on the town of Broken Hill and embracing that town."
Luhrmann and De Laurentiis had planned to film Alexander the Great in Morocco but began searching for new locations in Australia after terrorist suicide attacks in Casablanca.
Several films have been made around the Outback New South Wales town, the most notable of which was Mad Max.