Famed filmmaker Baz Luhrmann has announced he is set premiere a six-hour TV version of his big-budget epic film, Australia, next week in Sydney.
Originally released in 2008, the period romance stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, and cost a reported US$130million to make.
Luhrmann has spent more than a year re-editing the sprawling saga into a six-part series called Faraway Downs, which will drop on Disney+ on November 26.
The world premiere will take place at the South By South West (SXSW) film and tech conference in Sydney on October 21, where Luhrmann and Kidman will be guests.
Australia, billed as an ‘Aussie Gone with the Wind’, received poor reviews upon its theatrical release and failed to make a profit despite grossing more than US$211.3million worldwide.
Famed filmmaker Baz Luhrmann has announced he is set premiere a six-hour TV version of his big-budget epic Australia next week in Sydney
![Luhrmann has spent more than a year re-editing the sprawling saga 'Australia' into a six-part series called Faraway Downs, which will drop on Disney+ on November 26](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/10/04/76362787-12613049-Luhrmann_has_spent_more_than_a_year_re_editing_the_sprawling_sag-a-34_1696908662043.jpg)
Luhrmann has spent more than a year re-editing the sprawling saga ‘Australia’ into a six-part series called Faraway Downs, which will drop on Disney+ on November 26
![First released in 2008, Australia starred Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, and cost US$130million to make Pictured: Nicole Kidman on the red carpet last month in New York](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/10/03/76362799-12613049-image-a-3_1696905932287.jpg)
First released in 2008, Australia starred Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, and cost US$130million to make Pictured: Nicole Kidman on the red carpet last month in New York
Storyline details for Faraway Downs are unavailable, but it’s understood the series will use footage shot for the original film, which ran almost three hours.
It will also feature a new ending and updated soundtrack.
‘I was inspired to re-approach my film Australia to create Faraway Downs because of the way episodic storytelling has been reinvigorated by the streaming world,’ Luhrmann said in a statement a head of the films SXSW premiere.
Announcing the the project in June 2022, Luhrmann, 59, said at the time that fans could look to the mini series as a new variation on Australia.
The Elvis director also indicated the new version of Australia will highlight Indigenous themes and offer ‘alternative plot twists’.
‘I originally set out to take the notion of the sweeping Gone with the Wind-style epic and turn it on its head,’ he said.
Luhrmann explained the original film was ‘a way of using romance and epic drama to shine a light on 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 centred on an unlikely romance between an Aussie cattleman (Jackman) and English aristocrat Lady Sarah (Kidman).
![Australia, billed as an 'Aussie Gone with the Wind', received poor reviews upon its theatrical release and failed to make a profit despite grossing more than US$211.3million worldwide](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/10/04/76362801-12613049-image-m-20_1696906995650.jpg)
Australia, billed as an ‘Aussie Gone with the Wind’, received poor reviews upon its theatrical release and failed to make a profit despite grossing more than US$211.3million worldwide
![Storyline details for Faraway Downs are unavailable, but it's understood the series will use footage shot for the original film, which ran almost three hours](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/10/04/76362805-12613049-Storyline_details_for_Faraway_Downs_are_unavailable_but_it_s_und-a-1_1696909633774.jpg)
Storyline details for Faraway Downs are unavailable, but it’s understood the series will use footage shot for the original film, which ran almost three hours
Faraway Downs is the outback cattle station Lady Sarah inherits when her husband dies. It later comes under threat from sinister competitors.
There is also a major storyline devoted to Lady Sarah’s attachment to a young Aboriginal boy called Nullah (Brandon Walters).
The story climaxes with the bombing of Darwin by Japanese Imperial Forces, which occurred on February 19, 1942.
Faraway Downs will drop on November 26 in Australia and other territories on Disney+ and on Hulu in the United States, and Star+ in Latin America.
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