From The Producer

The following excerpt is taken from the excellent Strictly Ballroom book featuring the screenplay written by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce. The book also features several short reviews of the film, as well as this introductory passage from the producer that describes the journey of turning Luhrmann's play into a hit Australian film.

From the Producer - Tristram Miall

At the end of 1988, Ted Albert and I approached Baz Luhrmann about turning the fifty minute stage production of Strictly Ballroom into a feature film almost double that length. We knew that the play had worked in front of a wide variety of audiences in Sydney, Brisbane and Czechoslovakia where it had won awards for best play and best direction at an international drama festival in Bratislava.

We also knew it had the three key elements we were looking for - humour, music and dance. Ted loved the old Hollywood MGM musicals of the thirties and forties. What we wanted to create was an all-Australian contemporary realisation of that tradition. It was a bold idea given that dance movies barely feature at all in Australian features production. At Baz's insistence and with our full support, boldness and a refusal to compromise became the standard for the film.

The development of the script was a fascinating, frustrating and finally fulfilling journey, which took us all down many dead-ends over a two year period. Those dead-ends featured allegorical sub-plots, that we later realised added confusion, interrupted the energy and cost to much to shoot. What better reasons could there be for dropping them? The strength of the script came from its simplicity. The challenge was always to get the structure right.

An early trip to Cannes to excite overseas distributors with our script was unsuccessful. Why couldn't they see what we could see so clearly? Baz acted out scenes in front of jaded Hollywood distributors, waltzing one minute, doing a rumba the next. Despite this, none wanted to bite. We did our best to give a taste of the style of the film and particularly the humour - without success - 'Strictly What? did you say, Strictly Boring?'

Getting any feature film up and made is a roller-coaster ride, with exhilarating highs and gut-wrenching lows. The worst came just a the script had reached a stage where we were all happy with it. My partner Ted Albert, the one of us who had seen the original play and suggested it as our first feature, died suddenly of a heart attack.

In the end, with help first and foremost from Ted's widow, Popsy Albert who joined the film as Executive Producer; but also from Andrew Pike at Ronin Films, and the Australian FIlm Finance Corporation and many good friends, perseverance won out and we moved into production. That was another exhilarating journey. This script is the result of the strong and sustained belief of the key people involved in its creation. The film that grew out of it reflects the passion of all of those who then contributed to its realisation.

Sydney, 1992