Archive for August, 2007
The recent Horse Influenza within Australia [info] may have caused further delays in the shooting of Australia. For several days the transportation of horses has been prohibited, preventing movement of the movie’s animal stars from their holding areas to the shooting locations. However, as of Wednesday the ban has been lifted in Western Australia so hopefully things will continue to run smoothly.
On the lighter side of things, The Sun reports, that the generosity of Nicole Kidman has been at work on the set of Australia. She’s decided to pick up the tab on the coffee cart serving hot drinks to the 200-strong cast and crew each day. However this is no cheap round of drinks by any means. Often, set catering is poor but this cart served stunningly good coffee, hot chocolate and iced coffee — all at $3.50AU a cup. On just one day last week more than 1,000 cups were served, costing near $4,000 for the day. Last week’s bill was apparently approximately $17,000! The Sun reports they’ve now decided that in true Aussie fashion the next round will be Hugh Jackman’s shout. Hear Nicole talk about the coffee crew and more by visiting our multimedia section.
+ We’ve added a new video from the top end (Darwin) about Hugh Jackman, special effects and crocodiles.
+ Plus a new audio interview with Nicole Kidman on the way to the set in Kununurra.
source: The Sun
August 30th, 2007
Things have been pretty low key on set in Kununurra, though the stars have been spotted out and about town. The most public event was when director Baz Luhrmann and actor David Ngoombujarra attended a celebrity tree planting event on Sunday August 12, 2007. The pair each planted a Boab tree and Baz graced the 200, or so, large crowd with a speech about his filming in the outback.
The lull in news has given us a few spare moments to get some more content on the site. We have recently updated the time line of filming for Australia, Cast and Crew biographys including a much more extensive cast list. Finally, as a special treat we have opened a new section of the site, with wallpaper for your desktop. Be sure to check it out!
As always we’re still speculating and posting away at the australiamovie.net forum, so be sure to drop by and say g’day.
sources: Thanks to Pauline for sending in her Baz photograph & thanks to curious_cookie for donating new scans to the gallery
August 17th, 2007
On Sunday 5th August, Hugh Jackman arrived in Kununurra, Western Australia, to begin another phase in the epic filming of Australia. The following afternoon, Nicole Kidman arrived and all were ready to get the show on the road.
The small town of Kununurra is packed to the brim, with the local Kununurra Turf Club playing host to approximately 80 camper vans to house the film crew. Most of the filming will take place at Carlton Hill Station, with several surrounding locations to be utilised in addition.
Finally, stay tuned for potentially interesting competition details. The Age reveals that as part of a charity endeavour Nicole Kidman auctioned off a highly sought after lunch on the set of Australia to be had with Hugh Jackman and director Baz Luhrmann. Apparently the highest bidder was Australian woman’s magazine, New Idea. One would expect, or hope (!), that they will offer the lunch as prize in a future edition of their publication.
Sources: Abc.net.au, Kimberley Echo, The Age
August 7th, 2007
