Australia's acting elite are on the bill of Baz Luhrmann's most ambitious project. The result is tipped to put Australia at the forefront of the industry . . . for better or worse, writes ERIN McWHIRTER.
DIRECTOR Baz Luhrmann is reaching for the stars with his epic film Australia. It is, without a doubt, the most ambitious and expensive local film ever produced - one that offers the chance for the local film-making industry to take its rightful place on the international stage.
That's if it works. The film is breathtakingly audacious, from the $130 million budget to the title itself.
In years to come, it could either be seen as the moment that redefined Australian cinema or it could become known as Baz Luhrmann's greatest folly - a disaster of Heaven's Gate-style proportions.
The sweeping tale wends together romance, drama, adventure and spectacles, and it features a huge list of stars led by two of the country's most bankable Hollywood talents, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.
Australia is, at heart, a love story beginning in the late 1930s revolving around Englishwoman Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) who, after inheriting a cattle station, falls for a drover (Jackman).
Jackman helps the beauty drive a mob of 1500 cattle across the vast property, with the threat of Darwin being invaded by the Japanese hanging over them. From its inception, Luhrmann, 45, maintained that the film's essence would be Australian and he has kept his word, standing by the film's original title.
He says that if he discovers in the editing process the name doesn't fit, he will change it. Luhrmann likens the name to other epics, such as Out of Africa, Casablanca or Oklahoma!.
"The title was a shocker and I aim to shock,'' Luhrmann jokes as he guides the cast through the second-last day of shooting on a sound stage at Sydney's Fox Studios.
"This woman (Ashley) comes from a faraway place and is transported to a mythological place far, far away, almost a fairytale place in her mind, called Australia. So Australia to the rest of the world means big, far away and strange. Where men wrestle crocodiles. And that's probably all she knew.
"I am not denying the idea (the movie title) might evolve.''
A crew of more than 400 slogged it out under the sun in the northern Queensland town of Bowen, in Kununurra, in Western Australia's vast Kimberley region, and on the manicured green lawns of Sydney's 150-year-old Strickland House, in Vaucluse, then back to the bright lights of the Fox Studios sound stages at Moore Park. This production is quintessentially an Australian epic.
Luhrmann and his wife, Oscar-winning costume and set designer Catherine Martin (known on set as CM), and the couple's two children, spent two years travelling around Australia before shooting, to soak up the landscape, culture and meet with people who live in this great southern land.
The film-maker says it was a trip of self-discovery and one he holds close to his heart.
During that time, Luhrmann set eyes upon Broome boy Brandon Walters, 11, who would later be cast as Aboriginal boy Nullah in the film, an integral character.
"It was a fully funded quest in education for me to go on the road with a small team and go to those communities in search of the boy,'' he says. "But really just to have my own experience, to come to terms with all of that - already I have been paid 10 times over in terms of my experience.
"It's up there with the top five things I have done in my life, really - to find a boy who could fulfil so many of the requirements and find a little boy who was from Broome, who came with no acting experience and is now an actor.''
Just about every Australian actor with a profile and exceptional acting ability has been cast in Australia. The call sheet reads like a who's who. Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, David Wenham, Barry Otto, Bill Hunter, Ben Mendelsohn, John Jarratt, Essie Davis, Sandy Gore and David Gulpilil have all witnessed Luhrmann work his magic to bring this most expensive of Australian films to the world.
Roles have even been extended to family of the film's stars, with Jackman's son, Oscar, 7, following in the footsteps of his famous dad and mum, Deborra-Lee Furness, to feature as a young missionary child.
Kidman's son, Connor, is spotted on set channelling the stockman vibe by saddling up, while Keith Urban is regularly seen watching quietly from the wings as his wife plays out her scenes.
"The loveliest thing is being able to work with such a prestigious group of actors,'' Kidman says. "These are people I have known most of my life and now to be doing what I consider is an ensemble piece with them is a great privilege.
"The other delight has been working with most of the crew who I have been working with since I was 14 years old, when I did Bush Christmas, but I am nervous still. You'd think I wouldn't be after so many films, but I am.''
For Kidman, the excitement of working on Australia is not just sinking her teeth into a challenging role; it's also about reuniting with the Moulin Rouge! team of Luhrmann and Martin.
"I am honoured to be working with Baz and CM again,'' Kidman says.
"I just hope we can make our country proud with a story we all hold close to our hearts.''
Kidman has often talked of her "creative soul mate'', Luhrmann, and of his genius film-making abilities, but it's another thing to experience it first-hand.
Perched just to the side of the sound stage, where the actress and her leading man emotionally play out their final scene, it's impossible not to become hypnotised by Luhrmann's intoxicating energy and boundless enthusiasm and talent.
Geeing the actors up, Luhrmann bellows lines from the script before screaming: "Action.'' His eyes focus on the actors and he yells directions throughout their take to draw out their best performance.
Another of Luhrmann's qualities is to allow the script to run its course from day to day, taking a spontaneous approach to the shoot.
"If you could tick any box off a job, this has every box ticked,'' says a scruffy, handsome Jackman. "Part of me doesn't want to let this go.
"It's probably the best movie I've ever worked on.
"It's hard to let go and Baz is just amazing to work with,'' Jackman says, then, turning to Kidman: "I remember you said to me right at the beginning `You might think that you have a handle on what the film is going to be like and then you see it and go wow'.''
Kidman adds: "That happened on Moulin Rouge!. I had a child at the beginning of Moulin Rouge! and then it was cut out. Baz and I still talk about it, the lost child. He really changes what he does, he maps it out, he redrafts, he is like a painter and it's fascinating.''
Australia is expected to be released around the world at the end of the year but Luhrmann is reluctant to discuss the box-office prospects.
"Will this film be a success? I don't know,'' he says. "Could it be that almighty mistake that one is bound to do at sometime? Possibly, but not likely.
"Because no matter where the art is at, we will do everything we can to make it as good as we possibly can.
"I have already found what I am looking for and now it's just a question of giving back.''
THE CAST LINE-UP
NICOLE KIDMAN
Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who inherits a cattle station, Faraway Downs, in Australia.
BRYAN BROWN
King Carney, a cattle baron who owns a huge portion of the land in northern Australia.
DAVID WENHAM
Neil Fletcher, a station manager who plans to take Faraway Downs from Lady Sarah Ashley. "It's a very, very large cattle station and he likes it so much he wants it for himself," the actor says.
JACK THOMPSON
Kipling Flynn, an alcoholic bookkeeper with a luxurious lifestyle. Thompson says he's "somewhere between a total tragedy and a struggling spirit''.
HUGH JACKMAN
A rugged Australian drover who helps Lady Sarah Ashley move the cattle across her property. The role was originally to be played by Russell Crowe.
DAVID GULPILIL
King George, a magic tribal elder. The actor sings a great deal of his role in several pivotal scenes.
And more familiar faces . . .
Aaron Pedersen
Ben Mendelsohn
Bill Hunter
Ray Barrett
John Jarratt
Barry Otto
Arthur Dignam
Bruce Spence
Essie Davis
Sandy Gore