Posts filed under 'Baz Luhrmann'
Pre-empting the free to air screening of Australia on local television, bazmark.com have published these words direct from Baz Luhrmann about the historical inspiration for the film.
“The plot of ‘Australia’ is a work of fiction…a romantic epic. While not a documentary, the historical canvas on which we paint the love story is drawn from fact. In constructing the story, we had a set of rules which were strictly adhered to: as long as it does not fundamentally change the truth, if it’s better storytelling achieved through a conjunction of time or a changed circumstance, then we would do this this if it was better storytelling and clearer to the audience. We were aware at all times that the audience is there to have an emotional experience. Although the events in the story are imagined, each one of them has a factual reference that we unearthed during an extensive two year period of research.”
- Baz Luhrmann, January 23, 2011
In addition they’ve added a very extensive section on their website detailing how factual events in history have influenced certain parts of their movie magic.
January 25th, 2011
Australia has had a busy long weekend in the Australian media. On Sunday Channel 9 featured a 30 minute Making of Australia feature and on Channel 10 Hugh Jackman appeared on talk show, Rove.
Upcoming on Tuesday 14th of April those with subscription tv, be sure to tune into Foxtel’s Sky News at 1pm to watch a very candid edition of Showbiz in which Baz Luhrmann finally has his say on the critics, the tourism campaign and the box office results. Check local listings for specific times, it will also be re-aired on Friday.
April 12th, 2009
Homegrown film Australia has been now been released on DVD and BluRay down under, despite it still showing at some cinemas.
“The Aussie audience has decided — that makes me feel good,” Luhrmann said. “I have found that profoundly rewarding.”
Currently a stripped down version of the DVD is available in all stores, however a cardboard slipcase cover version with bonus postcard inserts has been spotted at budget store BigW, similar to the Walmart special in America.
Respected newspaper, The Australian reports; the early indications are that DVD sales will be strong. Since being released in Australia on Wednesday, the DVD has already sold double what Fox expected. And in the US, almost two million DVDs have been sold in one month — 80 per cent of what the film giant predicted it would sell altogether.”
source: The Australian
April 3rd, 2009
Baz Luhrmann and Nicole Kidman feature in a stunning photographic spread for the Vanity Fair March 2009 issue. The piece is entitled Hollywood Portfolios. Some of the actor-director teams featured have a history together, while others produced their first mind-melds in 2008. Nonetheless, in each case the chemistry was profound, the effect exponential.
This most recent photographic session was undertaken by none other than legendary photographer
Annie Leibovitz. If that name sounds familiar to you, it should. Not only have Annie’s past photographs left their mark on hollywood history, but more recently she visited the sets of
Australia and produced some stunning shots for the film
as reported in June 2008.
For more insight, view a behind the scenes video with Baz and Nicole …
February 3rd, 2009
The team from Australia are at it again. By now it is widely known that our very own Drover will be hosting the Hollywood night of nights. However an added bonus for Australia fans comes in the news that Jackman’s co-workers have been asked to lend their unique touch to staging the event!
Hugh’s long standing, reputable time on stage and hosting of awards shows such as the Tonys means that he is not only an ideal choice to host the Academy Awards, but that they’d be crazy to let him leave the stage without performing a song or two. Thankfully the powers that be have harnessed his talent and are bringing in the big guns to ensure that everything is dazzling. Who better to ask for assistance than Oscar award winner Catherine Martin and musical director Baz Luhrmann? The creative duo were asked to choreograph and produce a big musical number which will appear at some point during the evening’s telecast.
Without a doubt Hugh Jackman is in safe hands; in addition to Moulin Rouge! the pair have also had ample success on stage through their Bazmark production of La Boheme in both its Australian and Broadway incarnations.
source: fox news
February 1st, 2009
Official news that Australia will be arriving on DVD in the not too distant future! 20th Century Fox have announced that on March 3rd we (possibly USA only, thus far) will receive the film on Blu-ray Disc. For now the DVD extras are limited but, perhaps pending viability, director Baz Luhrmann has mentioned that he hopes to release a supersized version of the film on DVD by December 2009.
Features for the iminent release include:
Deleted Scenes:
- What about the drove?
- Angry staff serve dinner
- Australia: The people, the history,
the location featurette [Blu-ray only]
Behind-the-Scenes: [Blu-ray only]
- Photography
- Production Design
- Costume Design
- Locations
- Cinematography
- Sound
- Editing
- Music
- Visual Effects
source: high def disc news
January 14th, 2009
Previous News Updates
Unfortunately Catherine Martin did not come away with an Academy Award this year but Australia definitely was in the spotlight, and host Hugh Jackman certainly couldn’t let them forget that mentioning the film in his opening dialogue and generally doing the movie and the country proud as a great host. In addition to Catherine Martin’s nomination, Australia star and Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman was on hand to help pass torch in the Best Actress category.