In 2008, an extremely ambitious adventure film starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman was released in cinemas. 15 years later, the failed project is coming to Disney+ in a completely new version
Just last year, Baz Luhrmann scored one of the biggest successes of his career. The biopic Elvis about the eponymous music legend turned out to be a surprise hit and raked in almost 300 million US dollars at the box office. Luhrmann had less success with his most ambitious project: the adventure epic Australia.
The lavish historical film from 2008 fell far short of expectations, both in terms of quality and financially. Now Australia is being given a second chance: Luhrmann has turned the 165-minute feature film into a six-part mini-series. In six days, Australia – The Series comes to Disney+.
With Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman: Australia comes to life as an adventure series on Disney+
The story of Australia begins in the movie as in the series with the wealthy aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman), who comes to Australia from England in 1939 and takes over her late husband’s cattle farm. In order to protect the land from the greedy cattle baron King Carney (Bryan Brown), she must team up with the gruff drover Drover (Hugh Jackman).
Here you can watch the trailer for Australia:
The story is told from the perspective of a boy named Nullah (Brandon Walters), who belongs to the Stolen Generation. This term is used to describe the indigenous people of Australia who were forcibly removed from their families by order of the government, which is a violation of human rights.
Luhrmann did not shoot any new scenes for Australia – The Series. Instead, he went through the material that was shot for the feature film and created a completely new cut. He and his team combed through over 600,000 meters of film to tell the story in six episodes, as Variety reports.
Australia – The series is therefore more than just an extended cut with new scenes. Based on Luhrmann’s rewrites, he has completely taken Australia apart and reassembled it – with a deliberate focus on episodic storytelling. This should definitely change the rhythm of the story and provide a viewing experience that differs significantly from the original.
Get your subscription now: Here you can watch Australia – The Series on Disney+
