MAY 2008
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25 May 2008
'Australia' Official Site Update
- The Australia official website has now been updated, and now includes includes the teaser trailer, international release dates, and some fantastic new images from the film.
Teaser trailer:
As well as being available to view on the official website, the teaser trailer
is also available to download in high resolution from the
Apple
website, including a copy for your ipod :) The teaser trailer has been receiving
widespread positive feedback, with
Empire
declaring to be "Gorgeous. You could rip any frame from
this teaser and slap it on your wall. The twilight haze over everything, the
permanent tinge of dust, the elegant explosions, the unending scenery – it's all
a little bit Terrence Malick, a teeny bit Wong Kar Wai (we're thinking In The
Mood For Love) and a lot David Lean. Beautiful."
International release dates:
13 November 2008 - Australia
14 November 2008 - USA
10 December 2008 - Switzerland
18 December 2008 - Holland, Israel
19 December 2008 - Italy
24 December 2008 - Bahrain, Belgium, Egypt, France, Jordan, Oman
25 December 2008 - Bolivia, Brazil, Central America, Colombia, Croatia,
Czechslovakia, Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungart, Jamaica,
Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rice, Qatar,
Sinagapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad, United
Arab Emirates, Venezuela
26 December 2008 - Australia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, India,
Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Spain,
Turkey, United Kingdom
31 December 2008 - Indonesia
1 January 2009 - Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Uruguay
8 January 2009 - Chile, Serbia
28 January 2009 - Philippines
5 February 2009 - Dominican Republic
28 February 2009 - Japan
New Movie Images:
As well as being available to view on the official website, you can also check
out all the new Australia images over at my affiliate website,
australiamovie.net.
Baz Luhrmann Receives Degree
Hugh Jackman, Baz Luhrmann and Deborra-Lee Furness
at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School opening.
- Congratulations to Baz Luhrmann for
receiving an honorary degree at the opening of the new premises for the
Australian Film, television and Radio School, as reported by the Sydney
Morning Herald:
School's in - and Baz sees stars
Sydney Morning Herald, 23 May 2008
After months of giving instructions to Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, the
director Baz Luhrmann was on the receiving end in Sydney last night. The
film-maker behind Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge and the unfinished Australia
was given an honorary degree - by Jackman - at the opening of the new premises
for the Australian Film, Television and Radio School at Moore Park. Describing
the honour as "a great thing", Luhrmann urged the country's film-makers to take
advantage of what he said were extraordinary opportunities offered by the
Federal Government's new incentives for production and the international success
of the country's actors. "When you think of the Government that's behind what
we're doing, when you think of the incentives, when you think of the global
talent, we're in a new phase," he told SiT's film correspondent, Garry Maddox.
"We have to embrace it as passionately and as strongly as we can." Luhrmann said
the school was a great addition to the film industry at Fox Studios, where he is
completing Australia. "Across from the film school is a giant dance school," he
said. "And across from the dance school is a film studio, and the visual effects
company that produced Happy Feet, and Soundfirm that's mixing Chinese action
films, and Hugh Jackman making Wolverine and - just upstairs - two brothers who
are twins have just cut their first low-budget horror film. It's a creative
community where every discipline and aspect of the film industry is taking
place." The school's chief executive, Sandra Levy, said the new premises would
transform the centre, which had been isolated from the industry at North Ryde.
The official opening was hosted by Bryan Brown with guests including the Federal
Arts Minister, Peter Garrett, Claudia Karvan and Megan Gale.
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18 May 2008
'Australia' Trailer Released!
- The much anticipated trailer for Baz Luhrmann's Australia is set to be released on Monday, 19 May 2008 at 9am (Australian Eastern Standard Time). Check out BigPond TV to view the trailer, which has a special introduction from Nicole Kidman. Further details are as follows:
Baz
Luhrmann's Australia released online
18 May 2008, The West Australian
Fans can get a sneak peak at one of the year's most anticipated films, Baz
Luhrmann's epic Australia on Monday when the first trailer is released online.
While the movie's release date is still six months away, the trailer will be
available free on BigPond TV
from 9am (AEST), ahead of a wider public release on Tuesday. Australia stars
Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, along with a supporting cast that reads like a
who's who of Australian actors, including Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, David
Wenham, Barry Otto, Bill Hunter and John Jarrett. Kidman has recorded a special
message to introduce the trailer.
The romantic
action-adventure is set in northern Australia prior to World War II, about an
English aristocrat (Kidman) who inherits an outback property the size of
Belgium. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins
forces with a rough-hewn cattle driver (Jackman) to drive 2,000 head of cattle
across hundreds of miles of the country's most unforgiving land, only to still
face the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces. "The trailer presents all the
elements of a truly epic movie, in the hands of one of the world's most
visionary directors and two of the world's biggest movie stars," said Marcos
Oliveira, managing director of 20th Century Fox Australia. We couldn't be more
excited."
The trailer can be accessed by broadband users via BigPond.com and by Telstra
Next G mobile phone users. "Movie trailers are hugely popular on line,
particularly ahead of the big screen hits, and there is none more highly
anticipated than Australia," BigPond group managing director Justin Milne said.
Australia will be released in cinemas across the country on November 13.
Also on Monday, 19 May 2008, the Australian television programme,
A Current Affair, will be featuring
a segment on Australia, which may also feature the movie trailer. The
segment will be screened during the programme which commences at 6:30pm on
Channel 9.
New 'Australia' Podcast
- Check out the latest podcast
which has been released as part of Apple and Bazmark's 'Set to Screen' series
here. This
podcast focuses on the production design of the movie, with a costume design
podcast due for release near the end of May 2008. The podcast is narrated by
the wonderful Catherine Martin, and the webpage also features information about CM, as well as
a fabulous opportunity to ender an Australia poster design competition.
Entries close on 26 May, and full details can be found on the
website.
Best of luck to everyone who enters!
For a huge range of fabulous screencaps from the three podcasts released so far in
the 'Set to Screen' series, visit the very impressive photo gallery of my affiliate site,
australiamovie.net (which is now back online and bigger and better than
ever!)
Jack Thompson Talks 'Australia'
- Jack Thompson, one of the country's most accomplished actors, and one of the stars of Baz Luhrmann's Australia, has described the movie as "one of the most significant Australian films ever made" in this article from the Courier Mail:
Baz Luhrmann's Australia highly rated by Jack Thompson
Courier Mail, 10 May 2008
It might not be in the cinema for another six months, but film legend Jack
Thompson has declared Baz Luhrmann's Australia would be one of our best films
ever. Much of the movie was shot around Bowen, which has been chosen to host the
national premiere of the movie starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman on
November 13. And while the film has been kept tightly under wraps, Thompson
along with other cast members has seen a 12-minute selection of scenes from the
finished film.
"They are breathtaking. I cried, I laughed," Thompson said. "I was knocked out
by it. I am so proud of it and I know we're involved in a major Australian film,
one of the great Australian films. You can never tell until a film is released
what people may or may not like about it, but it is no doubt that it is one of
the most significant Australian films ever made. Just the very scope of it, the
heart of it."
If Thompson's prediction is right, the success of Australia could be partly due
to the cast list that includes some of the country's best actors. Jackman,
Thompson, and Kidman are joined by David Wenham, David Gulpilil, Ben Mendelsohn,
John Jarratt, Ray Barrett and Barry Otto. It is also the first film Thompson and
Bryan Brown have made together since Bruce Beresford's 1980 classic Breaker
Morant.
Thompson was in Brisbane on Wednesday for the launch of the 2008 Asia Pacific
Screen Awards, to be held on the Gold Coast in November, where he was named
patron. For his next big screen role, Thompson reunites with Beresford for Mao's
Last Dancer, a historical film shot in China and Australia that is due for
release in 2010. Thompson said the success of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards,
launched last year, was recognition of the strength of the local film industry.
"When I was a kid, when we played goodies and baddies we adopted an American
accent, because goodies and baddies were on the screen and they were all
American," he said. "Unless you were playing a war hero, (then) you adopted a
British accent because they made all the good war movies. As a result of the
development of a film industry in Australia we now have Australian heroes. It
would have been impossible to even conceive of a major feature film called
Australia 30 years ago."
Premier Anna Bligh announced yesterday the awards would have an academy, made up
of those nominated for an award, which would strengthen the bonds between the
region's various filmmakers. The awards honour the work of filmmakers selected
from more than 70 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
'Variety' Article
- Australia promotion is
everywhere at the moment, with Qantas mentioning the movie in its in-flight
entertainment guide, and a sneak peak of the film including the popular
'kissing in the rain' picture of Lady Ashley and the Drover, in the 12 May 2008 edition of
the Australian OK! Magazine. Outside of Australia, there has also been
many promotional articles, including this one from Variety magazine:
'Australia' showcases country
Luhrmann's epic features Aussies at every level
7 May 2008, Variety.com
The Aussie film industry has finally nabbed a starring role in a Hollywood-backed blockbuster. Baz Luhrmann's upcoming epic "Australia" features the country's rugged landscape centerstage and Aussies at every level of production, a promotion from their sometimes invisible toil on some of the biggest productions of the last decade. WB's "Matrix" trilogy lensed in Sydney; George Lucas took "Star Wars: Episode II" and "Episode III" Down Under; and Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and cinematographer Andrew Lesnie had significant roles in New Zealand's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. "Australia" is toplined by Aussies Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, with a script penned by Stuart Beattie, Richard Flanagan and Brit Ronald Harwood, and design by Luhrmann's Oscar-winning collaborator Catherine Martin. "The importance of that film is enormous," says Ian Robertson, head of Holding Redlich Lawyers' media division. "It's the first blockbuster that's identifiably Australian." And then some. Pic has in all seriousness appropriated the nation's moniker, something filmmakers usually do only when making comedies.
"Australia" is
being billed as a sweeping Outback action-adventure romance, the story of an
English rose who inherits a remote cattle station but is forced to pact with a
stockman to protect her property from a takeover. Pair experience the bombing of
Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand as they drive 2,000 head of cattle over
unforgiving terrain. "The film will appeal to a very broad audience," says Fox
senior VP international marketing Kieran Breen, citing "an epic setting, great
adventure and drama, all set in a unique moment in time, circa 1935, when the
world was at war and Australia was the final frontier. ... The combination of
Baz and the Australian content will make this one of the biggest films in
Australian box office history."
Pic opens Nov. 13 with studio planning its widest-ever release in Oz, surpassing
the 537-screen rollout of "Star Wars: Episode III." Stateside release is skedded
for the following day and through other international territories around
Christmas to maximize auds and Oscar hoopla. In 2006, WB released "Happy Feet"
in the U.S. mid-November for Thanksgiving, and it went on to become the
highest-grossing Australian film there ever with nearly $200 million gross. The
next four highest-grossing Australian films in the U.S. are the first two
"Crocodile Dundee" pics, "Babe" and "Moulin Rouge!" "Babe," "Moulin" and "Happy
Feet" did not feature Australia in any identifiable way, while 20 years ago the
low-budget "Dundee" series caricatured rural Oz. Many Aussies were embarrassed
to be represented internationally as Outback ockers, and the tourism boom partly
fueled by the film's release eased their pain only a little.
For "Australia," federal agency Tourism Australia is working alongside Fox in a
bid to leverage the film's worldwide rollout. "We see enormous potential in this
film," says Tourism Australia's Rachel Crowley. She says pic's central storyline
of a rugged Outback adventure dovetails well with the org's purpose. Breen
confirms other iconic Aussie brands have inked deals with the studio to
capitalize on the film's release, among them national airline Qantas, telco
Telstra, rural apparel label RM Williams and shopping mall chain Westfield. For
the Oz industry, Luhrmann's first film in seven years is already a triumph.
While preparing to shoot the pic, the multihyphenate took time to help persuade
the Oz government to introduce a new incentive scheme that will effectively
result in the feds writing Fox a check for about 30% of "Australia's" production
costs. Even if critics pan the pic, Aussies will queue at the box office, if
only to decide for themselves whether Kidman and Jackman have any screen
chemistry or to see what design maestro Martin can achieve when she flips the
switch to rural. And what will Luhrmann's soundtrack to period Oz sound like?
'Australia' the next 'Gone With The Wind'?
- From the moment the plot was revealed, there has been constant comparisons of Australia to the classic film, Gone with the Wind. The recent release of the very popular image of Lady Ashley kissing the Drover has added further fuel to the fire. Judge for yourself from the pictures above! :)
Australia as Gone With The Wind
Daily Telegraph, 5 May 2008
Baz Luhrmann has described his $100 million plus film Australia as an epic
romance, but until now all we have seen are images of sweaty, khaki-clad actors,
usually on horseback, and often eating dust. Now The Daily Telegraph can reveal
Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman scrub up very nicely - in a red cheongsam and
handsome white suit respectively - for their clincher kiss. Australia has been
described as an Antipodean Gone with the Wind, and the Kidman/Jackman smooch is
evocative of the Clark Gable/Vivien Leigh clinch in the cinema classic. Jackman
has yet to view any footage of his performance - with the exception of the
12-minute reel Luhrmann showed to a very select few. "It's not quite at the
stage for us to see it," said Jackman, whose next project, X-Men Origins:
Wolverine, finished shooting on Cockatoo Island on Friday night. "But my ear is
close to the ground and I'm hearing positive things." Jackman, who plays the
drover to Kidman's aristocrat, speaks enthusiastically about the nine-month
shoot in Outback Australia: "I don't think I've ever been involved in something
with such energy and passion."
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