Another day and another trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia.” There’s been what, almost three now? But this one seems to be in a more classical vein and doesn’t include the Explosions In the Sky song from an earlier trailer which some people seem to love so much (let’s face it though, that appeals to a younger demo).
This trailer seems to focus on the manly ruggedness of Australian outback outlaws and brawlers (Hugh Jackman’s character) and includes some new footage of Bryan Brown (“F/X”) and David Wenham (“300”), but like previous editions the sprawling saga of a English cattlewoman (Nicole Kidman) trying to make it in Australia during WWII still looks massive and epic in scope.
However, is “Australia” and its Oscar chances a little too far-fetched? It’s runtime is apparently at 170 minutes length (just shy of 3 hours!, some say it’s 177 minutes) which is pretty damn long for viewers these days unless they’re watching popcorn-Oscar fare (intelligently made escapist movies) like “The Dark Knight.”
Seemingly much in the vein of “Gone With The Wind,” “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Out In Africa,” is this what Oscar voters are looking for these days? What’s more troublesome is that there appears to be zero buzz on the film right now because no one has seen it. Luhrmann notoriously plays his cards close to the vest and apparently critics won’t be screening this film until the very last minute.
Because the filmmaker is worried? No more like because he is apparently rushing to have the film completed for its November 26 release and while Luhrmann is confident he’ll reach that deadline, he is admittedly still working down to the wire. No one has seen a final print of the film yet because one doesn’t exist yet.
“We always [the release date] was extremely precarious,” Luhrmann admitted to the Australian news recently. “We’re going to give it our all and at the moment it’s an absolutely real date. But I would not be truthful if I didn’t say it’s a little like landing a jumbo jet on an aircraft carrier in a storm…”
So yeah, three weeks out from release (November 26) and the film is still editing!
The film cost $130 million so far, that price tag is still rising and it’s the most expensive movie ever made out of Oz. 20th Century Fox execs are probably getting extremely nervous as we speak. Without being worrying Cassandra’s about it, if “Australia” can’t nab itself a good slab of Oscar nominations, the film could be done for financially. It seems even with stars like Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, that mainstream audiences might be hard pressed to accept this one outright and it might need “5-Time Oscar Nominee” to get them out in droves enough to get the movie back into the black. That’s just our speculation anyhow, but we can’t see this film doing gangbusters at the box-office without some Academy Awards approval. We’re big fans of Luhrmann though so here’s to hoping. We were away at TIFF, when this NYTimes article about Jackman’s ability to open up a film/fill the shoes of a leading man role came out. It’s worth a read if you’re interested in this film.
