Archive for July, 2008
Brandon Walters, the 11-year-old Aboriginal boy from Broome who was plucked from obscurity to act in Luhrmann’s latest feature film, will now also star in the tourism campaign, which follows a New York couple escaping to the Australian wilderness.
The one-off campaign, which will cost Tourism Australia $50 million over 12 months, does not mention the movie directly, but will reflect its emotion, Baz Luhrmann told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.
“What we hope to do is convey an emotional experience that is possible from going the extra distance and coming to this unique special place on the edge of the world,” he said. “When Tourism Australia came to us, we were reticent at first because we did not want to confuse the promotion of the film with a tourism campaign. …The more we talked, the more I realised that we both had the same aims — to celebrate the truly unique and transformative power of this ancient and extraordinary continent. With this in mind, we agreed to put our team into the conception and realisation of a contemporary campaign which, while not aping the film, reflects this singular and attractive truth.”
This isn’t Luhrmann’s first foray into blending one of his films with an advertising opportunity. He directed a “Moulin Rouge!”-inspired Chanel commercial starring Kidman that looked a lot like the movie.
The “Australia” campaign has been conceived to celebrate the continent and will feature themes of romance, adventure, transformation and Aboriginal music
It’s also a Hollywood studio’s dream of free movie publicity. The 30- and 45-second TV and movie spots, which will begin airing in October, will feature “an urban couple transformed by an adventure,” Gysberts said.
Executive General Manager of Marketing, Nick Baker, said, “We remain one of the world’s most desired tourist destinations, but converting that desire into reality is becoming harder than ever for many travellers. …The need to create urgency and fashionability around a country’s ‘brand’ is stronger than ever and even Australia, which has long enjoyed an exceptionally high brand reputation, needs to keep its marketing fresh and compelling.” He added, “There is no better way to do that than to secure the help of one of the most creative and innovative talents, Baz Luhrmann, his creative partner Catherine Martin and the entire Bazmark team. …The themes of romance and adventure, coupled with the power of the Australian land and people to transform, will resonate in the tourism campaign, as it does in the film.”
The campaign will run in cinemas, on television and online and in print. It will run from October 2008 in 22 of Tourism Australia’s international markets with two advertisements - one for eastern markets and one for western markets.
ABC radio program PM have reported on the release at length, listen to the opinion of experts, industry insiders and the man, Baz Luhrmann himself. Download the report in our Media section.
Additionally view a video report from Nine MSN Australia
sources: Tourism Australia, LA Times, utalkmarketing
July 29th, 2008
Recently in a surprise appearance our resident Drover attended Comic-Con in San Diego to promote his forthcoming film Wolverine. However many astute fans observed that the Australian’s appearance seemed to resemble another movie he’d been shooting earlier this year, namely, Australia. Access Hollywood caught up with Jackman at Comic-Con and found out some interesting news.
Weeks after giving birth to daughter Sunday Rose, Nicole Kidman is already preparing to go back to work. According to her Australia co-star, Hugh Jackman, Kidman is heading back to the set of the epic film.
We are doing a little bit of re-shooting in a couple of weeks so she is sort of back to work finishing off the film,” Jackman told Access Hollywood at Comic-Con 2008 in San Diego on Thursday.
Jackman said he is happy for his friend’s baby news, but explained that filming on the project, directed by Baz Luhrmann, was tough during her pregnancy.
“I am beyond happy for her. I mean she is a amazing woman. She’s been a great friend of ours for a long time,” Jackman told Access. “To have this moment is just thrilling. It wasn’t always thrilling for her while we were shooting in Australia, let me tell you!”
Kidman was forced to withdraw from several action scenes on set due to her pregnancy - and it was her withdrawal and several other intense moments that helped Jackman figure out Kidman’s special news.
“For the last month, I remember she said, ‘I have to tell you I am not riding the horse,’” Jackman recalled. “She did all the riding and all of a sudden, in the last few weeks, she wasn’t riding a horse at all and I said, ‘I think I know!’ She goes, ‘Really? How did you know?’ I said, ‘Well, the fact that you were throwing up almost between every second take kind of gave it away.’ She goes, ‘Really? Do you think everybody knew?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah!’”
source: Access Hollywood
July 25th, 2008
By now you’re likely well aware that Apple has established a Set To Screen educational podcast series and competition for young film students in the United States; now the Bazmark team have elaborated on this concept and a new competition, of similar vein, has been launched via New Zealand program Film3.
Baz Luhrmann, director of Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet, has documented Australia’s film-making process - and he’s giving Film3 viewers exclusive access to his videoblogs. All he wants in return is for you to then turn off your computer, pick up a camera, and show him how it’s done!
Using Australia as your inspiration, make a three minute film that incorporates something you’ve learnt from Baz’s videos and send it to us at Film3 for your chance to win big. The videos will be posted episodically in the lead-up to Australia’s release on December 26.
Entrants must live in New Zealand. Prizes include $2000 towards your next film, a tour of Wellywood, a script assessment from the New Zealand Film Commission and much, much more. So get cracking!
Watch the first Video Blog here, which includes additional footage not previously seen in the USA podcasts!
Entry rules and further information can be found via the 3 Film website.
July 20th, 2008
Podcast #6 of the Apple Set to Screen series is now available for download via iTunes (free) subscription.
This episode is a continuation on the previous Location Shoot podcast. Simply viewing the podcast, one can see why, not one but, two full podcasts were required to cover the huge undertaking that was the effort of the Bazmark team shooting at many remote locations.
In the lastest podcast see how Director Baz Luhrmann uses the enormous scale of on-location shooting in Australia and seamlessly combines it with intimate filming on man-made sound studios in Hollywood.
75 breathtaking screencaps from this cast are now located in our Set to Screen Screencap gallery.
July 18th, 2008
British edition of the EMPIRE film magazine has a great four page feature on ‘Australia’.
The magazine has four glossy pages with a great on set encounter from one of the writers at Empire. We get to hear from Baz Luhrmann, about the scale of the epic he’s taken on and the expectations involved in that. CM and Nicole Kidman have their say and Mr Hugh Jackman even gets a peek in towards the end.
“This is a land far, far away,” trills Luhrmann. “Metaphorically speaking, it has a sense of fairy tale about it.”
“This is the last of a dying breed, this kind of movie,” Kidman enthuses, harking back to those days before CGI, when you make your epic - African Queen, Doctor Zhivago - you had to drag your production lock, stock and barrel into the wilds. “I mean, they don’t build stuff like this anymore. To feel that air and see people ravaged by the elements, as hard as it is, it’s exquisite.”
For those wishing to purchase the magazine, Empire’s August 2008 edition is currently available at news stands in the UK and via vendors carrying international magazines. Thanks to Hengist from the Australia Forum you can view scans of the magazine in our gallery, or if you’d like to read the article you can do so in our transcripts archive here.
July 6th, 2008
