We are hearing a lot about the romantic epic movie, “Australia”, directed by Sydney film-maker Baz Luhrmann. Its Australian debut is scheduled for Tues November 18 and stars lead actors Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

60 Minutes runs story
Last night (Nov 16), 60 Minutes (Australia) included a story on the mega-budget movie ($160 million) with an interview with lead actor Hugh Jackman and some previews of the movie production set in WWII (Darwin, Australia).
Reporter, Charles Wooly, described it as “an Australian outback epic, with the star of the film, without doubt, the Australian landscape itself.”
“It’s a classic Hollywood epic of the the kind that doesn’t get made any more – a classic love story writ very large,” says Wooly.
“There’s never been anything of this scope or size that has been made about Australia,” says actor Hugh Jackman.
“Australia’ – in the style of past grand romantic dramas?
Comparisons are being drawn with epic romantic-dramatic movies like, Gone With the Wind (1939) which was set in the American South in and around the time of the Civil War. GWTW starred Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland. It told a story of the Civil War and its aftermath from a white Southern viewpoint. The movie received ten Academy Awards, a record that stood for twenty years.
The epic-romantic movie, Out of Africa (1985) depicted a snapshot of African colonial life in Kenya (British East Africa) in the last decades of the British Empire. It was narrated from the lyrical, poetic viewpoint of the lead character, Danish Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke who made Kenya her home for 17 years. The movie starred Robert Redford, Merryl Streep (as Karen von Blixen-Finecke), and Klaus Maria Brandauer in the lead roles. It received 28 film awards including 7 Academy Awards.
Oprah Endorses “Australia”
It must be nice to have one of the biggest media personalities, Oprah Winfrey, give a rave review of your work. Apparently Oprah has dedicated a entire show to promoting the movie, including interviews with the lead actors, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. The show will be aired prior to the US release date for the movie, Nov 26.
“It’s the best movie I’ve seen in a long, long, long, long time,” Winfrey said. “It is epic, it is magic, it is a spectacle and the scenery is so gorgeous you can barely stand it. Australia is going to make you jump on a plane and go Down Under.”
You can see the 60 Minutes segment with previews of the production process here.
Technorati Tags: 60 Minutes story, Australia, Baz Luhrmann director, epic-romantic drama, Hugh Jackman, new movies, Nicole Kidman, Oprah Winfrey
Filed under: entertainment on November 17th, 2008 | No Comments »