OCTOBER 2007
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24 October 2007
Aaron Pedersen to play adult Nullah?
- The Herald Sun recently reported that Aaron Pedersen has been filming a role in Australia during the Sydney shoot. This is the first mention we've heard of the Australian actor being involved in the production, and I have now added him to my Cast and Crew page. His character name was not specified in the newspaper article. However, the webmaster of the Aaron Pedersen Fansite has contacted me and advised she has been in touch with his agent, who revealed that Pedersen will be playing the role of adult Nullah.
It has previously been reported that the timeline of Australia will span over four years, from 1938 to 1942, which was the year of the first bombing of Darwin, and which we already know takes place near the end of the movie. I am therefore curious as to how the role of adult Nullah will feature in the storyline. As we know, 11-year-old Brandon Walters plays Nullah, and he has been pictured filming scenes with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, including scenes which looked like they were set during the Darwin bombing. Pedersen is almost 30 and I am wondering how such a jump in age will be covered in the film? There is now much speculation among Australia followers, with speculative storyline ideas including the possibility that young Nullah dreams about his adult self. Or, perhaps there are flashbacks at the end of the film, with the adult Nullah reflecting on his past experiences with the Drover and Lady Ashley. Or, perhaps the story is narrated by the adult Nullah all the way through? But then there would be a lot of scenes where he wasn't present... We will have to wait and see if any of these theories have any relevance to the movie itself as, for now, all we can do is speculate! :)
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22 October 2007
'Australia' to finish shooting November
- It has now been confirmed that filming of Australia will continue at Sydney's Fox Studios until the end of November 2007. Some reports had indicated that filming would finish this month, but the Sydney Morning Herald today reported the following:
"Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are back on set for Australia in Sydney, after Kidman made a quick trip to the US to fulfil a contractual obligation. Kidman and Jackman are working full-time at Fox Studios in Moore Park to complete filming for Baz Luhrmann's epic film. The stars are expected to remain here until the end of next month, when filming is scheduled to finish. Despite industry speculation that Luhrmann was running behind schedule and beyond budget on his spectacular film, reports from the set suggest otherwise. "The studio is happy," one insider said, adding the Hollywood heavyweights behind the film had been pleased with the progress of the movie."
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17 October 2007
Happy Birthday Hugh!
Image:
Newspix
- Hugh Jackman celebrated his 39th birthday on 12 October 2007, and the Daily Telegraph reported the following article about his party on the 13th. Newspix revealed that Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin also attended, and the above image features Baz and CM arriving at the party. Images of Jackman in his role in Australia can also be found on my newly updated Production Images page.
Happy birthday Hugh
Daily Telegraph, 14 October 2007
Sydney's glitterati lined up last night to say Happy Birthday, Hugh.
Hollywood star Hugh Jackman swapped the dusty outback locations of his new epic,
Australia, for civilised Point Piper, hosting an intimate bash to celebrate his
39th birthday at the exclusive waterfront mansion Altona.
His Australia co-star Nicole Kidman, in a short black dress, arrived clutching a
bunch of flowers.
Among guests arriving from 7.30pm were Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch.
Former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh and wife Lynette carried a special
birthday gift: a pair of used Test cricket gloves wrapped in gold paper.
"Something different,'' Waugh quipped.
Since returning to make Baz Luhrmann's epic, Jackman and wife Deborra-lee
Furness have been staying at Altona, paying $35,000 a week in rent.
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10 October 2007
Faraway Downs Goes Pink for NBCF
- The website for the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) has recently reported how Baz Luhrmann has cast a pink spotlight over the set of Faraway Downs at Sydney's Fox Studios. As we already know, Faraway Downs is the homestead owned by Lady Ashley in Australia. The Faraway Downs set was originally constructed at Carlton Hill Station in Western Australia, however we can see here that the set has now been reconstructed at Fox Studios, presumably for interior shots within the homestead during these final stages of filming in Sydney. Well done to Baz Luhrmann and his team for supporting such a worthy cause!
Baz
Luhrmann's Australia set lit pink for Breast Cancer Month
Baz Luhrmann has
unleashed a pink spotlight over the country by illuminating the set of his
motion picture Australia to support breast cancer research and the National
Breast Cancer Foundation's annual Pink Ribbon Campaign. The mythical homestead
'Faraway Downs' featured in the film, and housed on Stage 7 at Sydney's Fox
Studios, forms part of the 2007 Estée Lauder Global Illumination program. Since
this project was launched by Evelyn Lauder in 2000 hundreds of famous landmarks
in over 40 countries have been lit pink to raise funds for breast cancer
research and awareness of the disease.
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5 October 2007
'Australia' Movie Set Wallpaper
- The excellent Tourism Bowen page has recently added a high quality aerial view of the Bowen movie set. Click here to download the stunning image, which would make a fabulous wallpaper for your desktop! :)
Tourism Australia Marketing Campaign
- Baz Luhrmann's Australia has huge potential to promote Australia's tourism industry, and now the country's main tourism body, Tourism Australia, has announced it is in talks with Luhrmann to create a massive marketing campaign involving the film. I personally think this is a great idea, as long as Tourism Australia allows Luhrmann to have significant input into the advertising, which I'm sure they will. We will have to keep a lookout for any related marketing campaigns next year! And of course, if there is any further information released regarding this venture, I will be sure to post it right here. The Sydney Morning Herald reported as follows:
Tourism wagon hitches to the stars of a romantic epic
Sydney Morning Herald, 5 October 2007
Tourism chiefs are banking on the epic romance Australia, starring Nicole Kidman
and Hugh Jackman, to deliver a tourism bonanza not seen since the Crocodile
Dundee franchise cast the country as the land of the larrikin.
The country's peak tourism
body, Tourism Australia, is in talks with the director, Baz Luhrmann, about
creating a large-scale marketing campaign centred on the film with the stars
playing a role in pushing Australia as a tourist destination that can offer more
than the major sites. Set in the years leading up
to World War II the film portrays the affair between an English aristocrat and a
cattle drover, played by Kidman and Jackman respectively, and takes in a sweep
of Western Australia and Queensland, parts of which are bracing themselves for a
flood visitors on the film's release next year.
The Herald understands the marketing could play
on the film's romance to position Australia as a destination for lovers. And,
rather than replace the
So Where the Bloody Hell Are You?
campaign, there are plans to incorporate the controversial line into the
Australia-themed campaign. "Romance and adventure
aren't necessarily the way that we have portrayed Australia in the past," said a
source close to discussions.
A spokesman for the film's
distributor, 20th Century Fox, Steve Newman confirmed talks were under way and
said in a statement that Luhrmann would be "thrilled" to work with the tourism
body. Tourism Australia declined to comment.
While a number of films have helped put Australian locations on the map, few
have had the effect that Crocodile Dundee had in the US following its release
there in 1986, where it capitalised on the awareness generated by the Paul Hogan
"Shrimp on the barbie" ads. Following the film's release arrivals from the US
and Canada shot up by a third. Even films that could be considered tourism
liabilities appear to have helped; there were fears that 2005's Wolf Creek might
deter backpackers but in the year after its release numbers rose by nearly 10
per cent. A film about a man-eating crocodile, Rogue, to be released next month,
is expected to do the same for the Northern Territory. John Morse, who helped
promote Crocodile Dundee and is now the chairman of Tourism Victoria, said:
"There's no question there's going to be a boost."
Locations featured in the film are readying themselves for the surge. Bowen on
Queensland's Whitsunday coast, which stood in as 1930s Darwin in the film, had a
record 20,000 visitors during the eight weeks of filming earlier this year.
Places worth a celluloid sell - Wolf Creek: Northern Territory and Broome,
Western Australia; Man from Snowy River: Snowy River, ACT; Finding Nemo: Great
Barrier Reefand Sydney; Mad Max; Broken Hill; Storm Boy: Coorang Wetland, South
Australia; Ten Canoes: Arnhem Land; Crocodile Dundee: Kakadu; Picnic at Hanging
Rock: Mt Diogenes, Victoria; The Castle: Bonnie Doon, Victoria.
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