So far we’ve had premieres and press conferences in Sydney, Darwin, Kununurra, New York, Paris, Madrid and Rome. Always on the ball we’ve added a whopping 315 candid images of our stunning cast and crew at these events to our image gallery.
We’ve also uploaded some hot new scans. The Australian edition of GQ magazine has just released their Hottest Men of 2008 issue. Being the hottest ticket in town Hugh Jackman features on the cover and director Baz Luhrmann gets a nice six page coverage with a great interview too. Also view Hugh as the cover story on in flight mag for air carrier, Jetstar.
Be sure to look through and rate your fave images.
Brits, on your TV tonight The Culture Show on BBC2 will be airing a half hour special on director Baz Luhrmann. This is new interview footage so be sure to tune in.
Those in the region can also watch a snippet on The Culture Show website, unfortunately the site is region locked and restricted to UK residents only.
WHAT: The Culture Show, feat Baz Luhrmann WHERE: BBC2 WHEN: 9th December 10pm and repeated 12th December.
Also the London premiere of Australia is not far away so keep your eyes peeled for news and pictures!
Australia is the #1 movie currently showing in the land down under, despite strong competition from powerful blockbuster favourites such as High School Musical 3 and Bond. With a domestic intake of $9.6 million USD from 12 days of showing its reported that cinema chains are quite satisfied with the film’s staying power.
” ‘Australia’ has probably exceeded my expectations,” said Kieren Dell, CEO of five-site regional New South Wales circuit Majestic Cinemas.
Peter Cody, film manager of large chain Greater Union, said, “It held up remarkably well over the weekend; the percentage drop was quite low in comparison with most big films. We were very happy.”
It’s no secret that this film has an older target audienced, so it is believed the release of teen sensation, Twilight, next week will have little impact on the film’s performance. Good word of mouth is continuing to spread, critics be damned and the film is picking up a lot of repeat viewers, with audience members seeing the film several times.
Join our many other visitors by posting your viewing experiences in our guestbook.
December may have only just begun, but awards season will be upon us before we know it. Testament to this is the fact that For Your Consideration ads are now appearing in entertainment magazines such as Variety.
Awards Daily have just updated with two new full page FYC advertisements for Australia, in all categories, particularly Best Picture.
With the use of a smouldering image which sadly does not appear in the film itself (seen right) we think it might catch the eyes of a few important voters!
Meawhile, a big thank you to all who have donated so far! We’re still looking for assistance, so if you’ve got some spare change in your pockets please read more on how to donate here!
When a good movie comes along, you like to have the soundtrack on hand to reminisce afterwards, right? So where for art thou Australia soundtrack?
We don’t have the full answer for you, but we can let you know the information we have thus far. There is a soundtrack on the way and hopefully soon! As we all know this film was in post-production right up until the last minute. Because of this we’ve been told that the soundtrack is still in the process of being pieced together due to the final product finishing recording only three short weeks ago!
One particular artist of interest to appear on this compilation is Angela Little aka Ophelia of the Spirits. As the credits start rolling you’ll hear her melodic and somewhat haunting voice sing ‘By The Boab Tree’, a song the musician also co-wrote. If we’re lucky we’ll also get an album with her rendition of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ as used on some versions of the trailer. Angela has been working on Australia for the past six months composing and scoring additional music for the film with collaborator and mentor Felix Meagher, in a music team headed by Oscar-nominated composer David Hirschfelder. Visit her Ophelia of the Spirits website.
It is unknown if Hirschfelder’s scores will appear on the soundtrack, but judging by past Bazmark productions the inclusion is highly likely. This will be a great inclusion if used to tie together various vocal pieces from the film. Visit David’s website to listen to past award winning works.
Also featured on the soundtrack will be The John Butler Trio performing, ‘All Night Long’. You can see John play the song live, here on the Today Show. Likewise expect to hear ‘The Drover’, an original song penned especially for the film by Baz Luhrmann and none other than Sir Elton John. Finally audiences were wowed by him on screen, so it is only fitting that Brandon Walters should also appear on the soundtrack. Here’s hoping that’s the case!
Here’s a story you aren’t reading in the Australian press, or anywhere else for that matter. We know media outlets visit our site for information, so perhaps this will give them something to rehash, or at the very least to think about. Australia has been released in Australia and America for 4/5 days now. Plenty of time for the critics to have their reviews printed. As with Baz opinions tend to be polarized, there’s been good, bad, and in between. So far it appears the good and in between outrank the bad, you can read the mix of reviews here.
Have you been to a screening yet? If you have, chances are the crowd were so impressed that they applauded at the end. In Australia this is not a common thing after a film, so it is amazing to witness; likewise we’re told the same is occurring all around American cinemas, already with nine separate instances mentioned on the IMDb message boards. When a complete stranger turns to you in the audience and says, “I feel like standing up and applauding,” and then proceeds to do so, this is a powerful film. Because of the subject nature, it may not be a film that will immediately attract cinemagoers in droves (no pun intended), but with such responses you can bet word of mouth will be the friend of this film and australiamovie.net intends to lead the way.
What’s quite disappointing is to see the Australian media’s willingness to re-report the few scathing reviews from our international neighbours. The Aussie press are not here to blindly praise the film; however nor should they report as though international opinions are gospel. As a small country we do tend to put a lot of stock in what the larger nations such as the UK and USA have to say, sometimes to a fault. We respect our older siblings and like to know what they think. However, if one critic from the UK publishes a scathing review over the film and Kidman’s acting, why is it then relevant for Australian media to publish an article …about this article?? Likewise with tales from The Age about the film supposedly ‘bombing’ in America; here’s an article which used current figures up to Friday when the film was only released on Wednesday. The article also failed to acknowledge that the film made twice the amount that Luhrmann’s previous Academy Award winning cult film, Moulin Rouge! made on its first day out, nor did it mention the box office went up by almost 100% on Friday and should bring in solid figures for the weekend. While this film will not likely take in massive numbers each day, it should do a long and steady haul to see it reap returns. Meanwhile no doubt we’ll continue to be fed a sensationalised and skewed portion of the truth, because it sells and it gets people talking. For as fast as some outlets were happy to put the film up on an unreachable pedestal, they have been just as eager to tear it down.
If you’ve reached this site before seeing the film, wanting to know if you should bother or not. Ask yourself, when was the last time you went to a film and people enjoyed it so much that they cheered and applauded? If you’re visiting our site because you enjoyed the film, then we encourage you to spread the word!
Well, we’re back, and just in time by my watch as in less than an hour it is about to tick over to November 26th, the day many of us have been waiting for!
I’d like you all to take a brief moment to read this important news update. Almost two weeks ago the fever-pitch surrounding this majestic film grew so large that our site drained our webhost of power. Needless to say this did not make them happy. Essentially, our site was so popular that we were forced to close!
How did we re-open? With the outlay of A LOT of money, we’ve been able to upgrade to a server of our own. This means we will be able to host lots more content and hopefully handle all the wonderful visitors that this film can throw at us.
However, when I say that it cost a lot of money, I mean A LOT! It was a tough decision, pay the high price or just let this amazing site and source of information from over the last two years disappear? With so much passion and commitment to this movie, we elected to keep the site open, however we’re opening up the money jar and hoping that our visitors will help out where they can.
If you like visiting our page for anything at all, our on the ball news, forum, our massive picture gallery or extensive video and audio archive please consider making a donation. We have set it up through the ultra secure and trustworthy PayPal and it can be done in the click of a button.
Any donation is really greatly appreciated, and please spread the word that we’re back in business and let others know of our plight or we may be forced to close for good!!
To lighten the mood, australiamovie.net is so prominent that its closure was even featured in this news story on TV…albeit as part of a crazy conspiracy theory to do with the film’s ending!! …
So far we’ve had premieres and press conferences in Sydney, Darwin, Kununurra, New York, Paris, Madrid and Rome. Always on the ball we’ve added a whopping 315 candid images of our stunning cast and crew at these events to our image gallery.
December may have only just begun, but awards season will be upon us before we know it. Testament to this is the fact that For Your Consideration ads are now appearing in entertainment magazines such as Variety.
We don’t have the full answer for you, but we can let you know the information we have thus far. There is a soundtrack on the way and hopefully soon! As we all know this film was in post-production right up until the last minute. Because of this we’ve been told that the soundtrack is still in the process of being pieced together due to the final product finishing recording only three short weeks ago!
haunting voice sing ‘By The Boab Tree’, a song the musician also co-wrote. If we’re lucky we’ll also get an album with her rendition of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ as used on some versions of the trailer. Angela has been working on Australia for the past six months composing and scoring additional music for the film with collaborator and mentor Felix Meagher, in a music team headed by Oscar-nominated composer David Hirschfelder. Visit her 