The famous director Baz Luhrmann announced that he will premiere his six-hour TV version big-budget epic, Australia, next week in Sydney.
Originally released in 2008, the romance stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman and grossed $130 million.
Luhrmann spent more than a year remaking the epic saga into a six-part series called Faraway Downs, which will debut on Disney+ on November 26.
The world premiere will take place at the South By South West (SXSW) film and technology conference in Sydney on October 21, where Luhrmann and Kidman will be guests, reports Diversity.
Australia, dubbed ‘Gone with the Wind Australia’, received poor reviews upon its theatrical release and failed to turn a profit despite grossing more than $211.3 million worldwide.
Iconic director Baz Luhrmann has announced that he will premiere a six-hour TV version of his big-budget Australian epic next week in Sydney
Luhrmann spent more than a year retooling the epic ‘Australia’ saga into a six-part series called Faraway Downs, which will debut on Disney+ on November 26
First released in 2008, Australia starred Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman and cost $130 million to make. Image: Nicole Kidman on the red carpet last month in New York
Story details for Faraway Downs are not available, but it is understood the series will use footage shot for the original film, which ran for nearly three hours.
It will also have a new ending and an updated soundtrack.
“I was inspired to revisit my film Australia to make Far Falls because of the way the streaming world has brought episodic storytelling to life,” said Luhrmann, head of Premiere Films at SKSSV, in a statement.
Announcing the project in June 2022, Luhrmann, 59, said at the time that fans could view the miniseries as a new variation on Australia.
The Elvis director also indicated that the new Australian version will highlight indigenous themes and offer ‘alternative plot twists’.
“I originally intended to take the notion of a Gone With the Wind epic and turn it upside down,” he said.
Luhrmann explained that the original film was “a way of using romance and epic drama to illuminate the roles of First Nations people and the painful scar in Australian history of the Stolen Generations”.
Set in the early years of World War II, Australia centered on the improbable romance between an Australian rancher (Jackman) and English aristocrat Lady Sarah (Kidman).
Australia, dubbed ‘Gone With The Wind’, received poor reviews upon its theatrical release and failed to turn a profit despite grossing more than $211.3 million worldwide
Story details for Faraway Downs are not available, but it is understood the series will use footage shot for the original film, which ran for nearly three hours.
Faraway Downs is a remote cattle station that Lady Sarah inherits when her husband dies. Later it comes under threat from sinister competitors.
There is also a main storyline devoted to Lady Sarah’s devotion to a young Aboriginal boy named Zero (Brandon Walters).
The climax of the story is the bombing of Darwin by Imperial Japanese forces, which took place on February 19, 1942.
Faraway Downs will debut November 26 in Australia and other territories on Disney+ and Hulu in the United States and Star+ in Latin America.
