You've arrived at the very first website dedicated to the Baz Luhrmann film simply entitled, Australia.
"Australia" is Baz Luhrmann's first feature film since the 2001 musical success Moulin Rouge! The highly anticipated film centres on an English aristocrat in the 1930s, played by Nicole Kidman, who comes to northern Australia to sell a cattle property the size of Belgium. After an epic journey across the country with a rough-hewn drover, Hugh Jackman, they are caught in the bombing of Darwin during World War II. Filming began late April 2007 & concluded December 19th 2007. The film was released November 26 2008.
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.
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.”
Australia is out now on DVD and Blu Ray in America.
American citizens also have access to a Walmart “Exclusive” edition of the DVD, seen left, which features special packaging to encompass the glossy Australia picture book inside. Unfortunately this is not available to those outside of the USA.
Additional release dates have now been listed in the sidebar to the right of the site. For more information about the Australia DVD and Blu Ray release, read our DVD press release update.
Mere days after the Oscars in Los Angeles Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman were back to work attending the red carpet premiere of Australia in Japan on February 26th.
This is the last major premiere scheduled for the films global release. In other parts of the world, such as the USA, the DVD is already due out in less than a week on March 3rd.
You can view all the red carpet premiere pictures from the roll out of Australia around the world in our gallery. We’ve also just added a collection of images from the latest premiere in Tokyo, with more on the way!
Baz Luhrmann’s epic romance Australia has become the second-highest grossing Australian film of all time.
Now in its 14th week of release, the film has grossed $A36.78 million at the Australian box office. On Thursday Australia overtook the 1995 hit Babe’s long-standing box office figure of $A36.77 million, and is surpassed only by Crocodile Dundee’s record $A44.7 million.
The film, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, is also set to pass $US200 million ($A307.93 million) at the global box office this weekend, with the film still to open in Japan.
“The ongoing box office success of Australia has been outstanding and a unique testament to the way the film has been embraced by this country,”Twentieth Century Fox Australia managing director Marc Wooldridge said.
Top 10 highest grossing Australian films at the local box office:
Crocodile Dundee – $44.7m Australia – $36.78m
Babe – $36.77m
Happy Feet – $31.8m Moulin Rouge! – $27.7m
Crocodile Dundee 2 – $24.9m Strictly Ballroom – $21.8m
The Dish – $18m
The Man From Snowy River – $17.2m
The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert – $16.5m
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.
View an interview with Baz Luhrmann and CM on the red carpet below, and after the jump you can re-live Baz’s showstopping number that he correographed for Hugh and Beyonce.
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 … (more…)
Australia is out now on DVD and Blu Ray in America.
Mere days after the Oscars in Los Angeles Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman were back to work attending the red carpet premiere of Australia in Japan on February 26th.
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.
