Gidday Australia, welcome to Sydney

The Sunday Telegraph

April 29, 2007

By JONATHON MORAN

THE first scenes on Baz Luhrmann's outback epic Australia will be shot in Sydney, with production on the big-budget Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman film to begin tomorrow.

The A-list Australian actors will spend this week working nights at the 150-year-old Strickland House, in Vaucluse, shooting from 6pm until dawn until Friday. A heavy security presence will keep guard on the site, to keep the paparazzi at bay and local residents wanting to walk along the foreshore will be escorted by guards.

Luhrmann was on set last week, doing preliminary test shooting and staff were heard referring to him as ``the comet''.

``He's always got a trail of people following behind him as he walks around the set telling them what to do,'' a source told The Sunday Telegraph.

``He points his finger and they go running in each direction.''

Kidman made a visit to the Strickland House set late last week to inspect her ``huge'' trailer to make sure it was suitable. She also spent Thursday afternoon rehearsing scenes with Bryan Brown.

Kidman and Jackman will film their first scenes for the much-anticipated film on a specially built parquetry floor on the grounds of Strickland House, which is standing in for Darwin's Government House.

The $100 million-plus 20th Century Fox action-adventure is set in Australia's northern outback before World War II and is due for release next year.

Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who travels halfway around the world to confront her cheating husband, only to find him dead.

She's left in control of a massive Northern Territory cattle station the size of Belgium.

Jackman plays Kidman's love interest, a drover who helps her drive 1500 cattle across the property, all under the threat of Darwin being invaded by the Japanese.

Australia's cast reads like a who's who of local acting talent, with Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, Bill Hunter and David Wenham in the line-up.

Wenham has told people privately he was blown away by the subtleties in the script. At first he thought the title was a ``bit geeky'' but, after reading the script, he couldn't think of a more suitable name.

Also in the feature are Ben Mendelsohn, John Jarratt, Barry Otto, Bruce Spence, Essie Davis, Sandy Gore, Ursula Yovich and Crusoe Kurrdal.

For many of the production staff, it will be the first film they have worked on since Superman Returns was shot in NSW more than a year ago.

The film will undoubtedly inject millions of dollars into the economy but will also provide a welcome morale boost to the local film industry.

Shooting will take place over five months in four locations -- Sydney, Kununurra, Darwin and Bowen.