Baz Luhrmann has finally revealed the title of his much-anticipated Australian Epic. The film will be called, quite simply, Australia.
Luhrmann spoke to the Australian media from his production base, the House of Iona in Sydney, and revealed a lot of new information about his upcoming film. Several news articles were posted online today, which can be viewed at the end of this update.
The shoot will supposedly last five months from March until August. We also now know the name of Nicole Kidman’s character - Lady Sarah Ashley.
Two other possible titles were Great Southern Land and Faraway Downs, which will be the name of the homestead in the movie. Personally, we think Australia was the right choice!
The budget has been revealed to be US$100 million. Until now, we were unsure exactly how high the budget was expected to climb, and this figure is certainly impressive. Luhrmann himself apparently did not comment on the budget, but it is believed to be US$100 million. Whatever the case, it is going to be a huge blockbuster budget that will surely do Luhrmann’s vision justice.
As we already know, Luhrmann is extremely passionate about this film, and his comments in these articles regarding the bombing of Darwin show just how devoted he is to telling this story.
“Darwin was attacked 64 times in six months … The government (disguised) the truth: 2000 whites were killed and non-whites were not counted, so the toll was far greater. But everything in the film will be in service to a great romance … Facts will be moved around but not in a way that fundamentally disturbs the truth.”
Sources: The Age, The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Images: Bazmark
November 23rd, 2006
Welcome to the very first website dedicated to the Baz Luhrmann film simply entitled, Australia.
As you can tell just by the very creation of this website months before production has even begun, there are a lot of people eagerly anticipating this motion picture. Three of those people happen to be working on this website, vampvan, IgotEwbabe and rougevelvet. All togther you have an Aussie expat., an American and a current Australian resident. We have been following the ‘progress’ of the screenplay into a film for years and are thrilled that it finally is all coming together; first with the announcement of two great A-list Aussie actors, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, but now it also finally has a title!
A name, what’s in a name? Why choose such a title for a film? It’s a country name, hardly inspiring or memorable, you may say. Well, at first glance one could argue you’d be right, but Mr. Luhrmann certainly does have the ability of using his words and stories to help us see things his way…
“I’m taking the perspective of the rest of the world to this film how they might view Australia,” Luhrmann said. “When you say Casablanca or Oklahoma! it means big. It means vast … I’m not saying this film is Australia. It’s a metaphor for a state of mind, for the faraway…”
This is definitely going to live up to its previous untitled status of, The Australian Epic. One look at the first verse to the Australian national anthem and you can just feel the rich colours and scenery that Baz has envisioned to showcase to the rest of the world.
“Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea:
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history’s page let every stage
Advance Australia fair”
So with that in mind, we hope you too have a thirst for information on this movie and we aim to be your #1 stop for all print news, media, videos and more!
Also if you’d like to join in discussion and perhaps end up contributing to the site, why not drop by our Australia forum?!
Hoo Roo! (Um, that would be Australian for ‘good bye’ 
)
November 23rd, 2006
Baz Luhrmann has finally revealed the title of his much-anticipated Australian Epic. The film will be called, quite simply, Australia.