Baz Luhrmann’s Australia didn’t manage to make waves when it came out back in 2008, but it still managed to nab some top stars with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Though the film was considered to be Luhrmann’s biggest flop, it looks like Australia is going to try to find its legs more than a decade later again as a miniseries.
Here’s the trailer for Faraway Downs:
The official description reads:
An English aristocrat, Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) who travels halfway across the world to confront her wayward husband and sell an unusual asset: a million-acre cattle ranch in the Australian Outback called ‘Faraway Downs’. Following the death of her husband, a ruthless Australian cattle baron, King Carney, plots to take her land and she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn cattle drover (Jackman) to protect her ranch.
The sweeping adventure romance is explored through the eyes of young Nullah, a bi-racial Indigenous Australian child caught up in the government’s draconian racial policy now referred to as the “Stolen Generations.” Together the trio experiences four life-altering years, a love affair between Lady Ashley and the Drover, and the unavoidable impact of World War II on Northern Australia.
The series essentially takes Luhrmann’s almost 3-hour film and spreads it across six episodes. We don’t know if there was any new footage that was added to the film, but at almost three hours, you can expect the movie to have a lot of extra shots as well as some deleted scenes.
With 2008 being the year where a lot of great films came out from Iron Man and The Dark Knight to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, you can imagine that Australia definitely had a lot of competition when it came out that year.
Luhrmann was already said to have trouble getting the movie over the finish line when it released, but even if Australia didn’t manage to captivate audiences then, maybe 2023 audiences will be more forgiving with a miniseries.
Faraway Downs release on Disney+ on Nov. 26.
