Linkalia

Here's some links to jog to glance your eyes over.

Time has an article about the lack of romance in cinema these days, with much of the early passages relating back to Baz Luhmann's upcoming (and very much anticipated by moi) romance epic Australia. Sleepless in Seattle was on TV yesterday and I recorded it because I was out, but I just love that movie. It's kind of sad that My Big Fat Greek Wedding is the rom-com that has stuck from the last few years. It's certainly no Sleepless in Seattle or Moonstruck is it?


I've been following the Melbourne Film Blog during MIFF to see what Paul has been saying. His thoughts on David Gordon Green's Snow Angels are very positive, so I'm a tad miffed (lol, pun not intended) that I forgot all about it. I was a fan of Green's Undertow afterall.

XO's Middle Eight has a review of the new Darren Hayes (discussed earlier) album This Delicate Thing We've Made. I have yet to get my hands on a pretty copy of the album, but when I do I will be expecting one of the best albums of the year/decade/forever.

Kevipod has the new Girls Aloud video. Sexy? Yes! Yes! Yes!

Electronic Cerebrectomy (I will never tire of typing that blog name) found a funny/disturbing thing at Roger Ebert's site. I admit to finding Rush Hour 2 a guilty pleasure of sorts, but I have no desire at all to see the third film. It's tired.

I'm not sure where JD got these billboard photos but they're funny as all get out! My favourite is the Christian Coalition of America, although it is true that only we can prevent bears in hats. Also, proof that Anna Faris can make anything funny.

I have to agree with Kenneth in the (212) about Pat Rafter. He's a dish. And even though we don't get to see him running around in small shorts anymore, he does still do underwear advertisements and, well, that's a-okay with me.

Victim of the Time takes a quick (well, 69 minute) look at Christopher Nolan's early film Following. I'd never heard of this and, shockingly (right?), I'm still not interested.

Have a peak at the poster for Paul Haggis' latest, In The Valley of Elah. It's... umm... well, it's sort of shit. I can't even tell that that is Charlize Theron. And there's no Susan Sarandon on the poster! It's all very rah rah Americah, isn't it?

And lastly, Ja at My New Plaid Pants discusses The Blair Witch Project. I concur with every letter of every syllable of ever word. That movie just taps into something that so few films can (for me).

Some Pictures

I'm annoyed at myself. I was reading the Sunday Herald Sun at work yesterday and there was this amazing production still from Baz Luhrmann's Australia featuring Nicole on horseback and I meant to bring it home and scan it for your guys, but like the knobhead that I am, I forgot to. You can check out some similar photos over at SplashNews (as if the god awful image-ruining watermark didn't clue you in - seriously, there are so many sites that I don't visit because they throw giant hideous watermarks or logos on top of everything. Even stuff they didn't get themselves.)

But this picture from the newspaper was just so good. No hideous logos. Nicole was looking amazing and reminded me a lot of Elizabeth Taylor in Giant, and those a big cattle-ranch boots to fill. I've been searching for the picture for a while now but cannot find it. And because I've decided to permantly ban any pictures with giant watermarks on them, the picture below is from Just Jared (who has the decency to not cover the picture with a watermark/logo). Something about the images coming out from the set make me even more certain that this movie is going to be amazing and that Nicole has another Oscar nod directly in her future (I don't think she'll get one for this year's Margot at the Wedding by the way).


By the way, check out the recently-discovered-by-me Cameron Laird's site for a big giant photo gallery of Australia (including the Bowen cattle drive sequence). Plus there's pictures of Hugh at the beach from just the other day so... ya know. That's pretty good to. I figured I'd respect Laird and his site though and not publish pictures from it. Well, I could have if I paid for it, but I think I'll just let you check out the site for yourself.

Someone over at the Media Boulevard forums for Hugh scanned this image from a recent WHO Weekly edition. It has an image of Hugh in the sleeveless version of his ranching outfit (there are more sleeveless pics at Laird's site). I'd suggest you hang around that forum if you want the very latest in Jackman/Australia pictures.

Ithinkijustdiedalittle

Seriously. Hugh Jackman. STOP PLAYING WITH MY MIND! Thanks to Ja for compiling these images from JustJared of Hugh on the set of Australia. I am blatantly stealing them, but whatever. There are also some lovely pictures of Nicole Kidman (with Keith Urban in a few) such as the one to the left.

And because Hugh Jackman is always better with clothes off rather than on, dlisted has some photos of Hugh at Bondi. I really need to move there. He always seems to be shirtless around that place!




Seriously. SEXY. AS. FUCK.

Also, the Brisbane Times has an article about Baz Luhrmann's reaction to the recent overhaul of Australian film funding, which I previously discussed here. The news is really all good for the Australian industry. Here's hoping we really can start making more large-scale films (obviously not the size of Australia and it's $100mil budget) that will reach more people both here and overseas.

Dancing with the Stars

I'd be remiss if I didn't post these pictures from JustJared of Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman rehearsing their dancing feet for a sequence in Baz Luhrmann's Australia. This is from the same scene where Hugh was dressed in a tux. I assume that because they showed a clip on the news last week of them filming an outdoor party scene where Nicole was on a stage looking at all the guests. The scene was decorated with lots of Chinese-inspired lanterns (as in those). So, I assume that Nicole holds a party at her ranch (her husbands?) and dances with the rough-hewn herder who is wearing a tuxedo a few sizes too small. They look so happy in these shots though, don't they? I LOVE IT and I can't wait!

To see all of them click the link I gave you towards the top.

Rough Hewn Cattle Drivers Don't Wear White Tuxedos...

...but then again, maybe they do?

Just Jared (via Film Experience) delivers the goods with on-set pictures of Baz Luhrmann's upcoming epic Australia. I'm not sure how many cattle drivers in the 1940s wore white tuxedos, but apparently Hugh's character does. He sure does look buff though. Like, X-Men size. Anyway. Enjoy.

Australian Quotables

I was reading over my AFI (Australian Film Institute) newsletter today (er, via email) and there was an interview with a man called Nigel Bluck. He's an upcoming Australian cinematographer who has worked on work such as the previously mentioned Home Song Stories, the Toni Collette mystery Like Minds and the award-winning New Zealand feature Stickmen. Well, it turns out he is working on Baz Luhrmann's Australia as a second unit something or other. That means he gets to help photograph Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. Tough job. Check out the quote below, or read the entire interview here.

AFI: What can you tell us about Baz Luhrmann’s Australia?

NB: I’m doing second unit and I’m really interested in it because of its classical elements. It seems to be grounded in very classical filmmaking, almost like a Western. So there’s a real degree of purity that I’m looking forward to being a part of. The scale is very large but I think the style of the film will be close to the early Westerns which were made with a smaller style. Even though it’s a big film I think what Baz is trying to do is pure and simple and succinct rather than a big show. It’s also an opportunity to look at the Australian landscape and film it as if it’s a character, which a lot of films have done before, but it’s interesting for me because I’m not all that familiar with the Australian landscape. That’s part of the reason that Bahman got me to go to Iran for Half Moon - it's that directors often look for someone with an ‘objective’ eye – an eye that’s not too familiar with the landscape.

Australia Bound

So, everything is gearing up for the official start of production on cinematic visionary Baz Luhrmann's romantic opus Australia. The town of Bowen is gearing up (more here, continued here). Below is a scan from the magazine article linked to above that I found via the Media Blvd forums.


The must read website about the film linked to an article about Australia co-star David Wenham who is doing publicity for his latest film 300.

But Diver Dan and Faramir may soon be consigned to the past, for some fans at least, thanks to Wenham’s role in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming epic, Australia.

Set in the 1930s and ’40s, the film will tell the story of an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) who inherits a huge Northern Territory cattle station, her journey across the country with an enigmatic drover (played by Hugh Jackman) and their subsequent experience of the bombing of Darwin in 1942.

Wenham will play the film’s antagonist, station hand Neil Fletcher, who plots to relieve the aristocrat of her inheritance.

With filming commencing in locations around the country only this month and the release date not expected until at least the latter half of next year, the buzz surrounding the film is akin to that of the Second Coming.

“Well, it’s going to be the biggest Australian film ever made,” says Wenham, who first worked with Luhrmann on Moulin Rouge!

“He asked me if I’d like to be involved and, after considering his offer for all of about two seconds, I said I was in.”

EEEE! Doesn't this just make you so excited. Baz had $50mil to utilise on Moulin Rouge! so I have no idea how he's going to spend $130mil, which seems a bit high (I'm scared that people will then call the film a disappointment if it doesn't make a bazillion dollars), but whatever.

Lastly, Just Jared has had a few entries lately with pictures of Hugh preparing for his role by taking horse riding lessons (including the image below). I hope his "rough hewn" character gets to include the facial hair. He looks mighty fine with it, if you ask me.

Happy Australia Day! Part III

So, yeah, I'm not just celebrating Australia Day but the entire Long Weekend. Here's a succulent little (well, no, not little) morcel of delicious candy for you guys to chew on. Is the Hugh Jackman/Nicole Kidman smooch in Baz Luhmann's Australia going to be the most erotically exciting moment of 2008? Probably.


[click to enlarge]
If that image of Nic and Hugh doesn't become some iconic moment of lust, which I assume Luhrmann will be intending it to be, then I'll be shattered. God... Just look at those two. That should be on the poster y'all. Who wouldn't want to see a movie where Hugh Jackman gets all rugged and sweaty and then macks on Nicole?

"It’s a story set in Australia about Australian characters. It’s about our great land, and it’s about our history. It’s about who we are,'’ Jackman said. “It’s so good to see Aussies in tuxedos,” he told the assembled Australians. “It’s like the cast of Happy Feet.”

From AustraliaMovie.net.

Also, I updated Part II of my Australia Day celebration. I added some more titles to the list of Aussie films for 2007, although as I clarify at the end, a lot will probably be relegated to 2008, so...

Anyway, titles added include $9.99 (stop-motion!), Burke & Wills (strange male bonding!), December Boys (Harry Potter likes girls!), Gone (The Australian outback is fucked up!), Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger (Toni Collette!), The Jammed (Human traffiking ensemble!), Noise (Sundance hit!), The Plex (Revenge comedy!), Romulus, My Father (Eric Bana and Franke Potente!), Storm Warning (Australia is filled with screwy wackos!), Ten Empty (Family Secrets always come out!) and West (Cousins falling in love... no really! Okay, not really!)

And lastly, because nothing says "AUSTRALIA" quite like a middle-aged woman in medievil garb protecting special glowing power-source stones from kids from the future who travelled back to a mythical moment in time (or, wait, did they travel to the future? Oh I don't know. Simon? Any reminders?)...
ASHKA!!!!!

Baz's Australia

I'm not sure if you have heard (I read it a couple of days ago, but neglected to mention it, stupidly) but Baz Luhmann has decided to go against titles such as Great Southern Land (another nickname for our country, like "Down Under" *shudders*) and Faraway Downs (one of the settings) and name his upcoming romantic epic... er, Australia.

Very simple. I'm not sure if I like it (atm I would have prefered Great Southern Land but that's just me), but I definitely see where he's coming from in trying to express the grandoise nature of it all and Australia has pathetic state names ("South Australia", "Western Australia", "Northern Territory") and he couldn't very well name it one of those, could he?

After an epic journey across country, she and rough-hewn drover Hugh Jackman are caught in the Japanese bombing of Darwin during World War II.

I'm a huge fan of Baz, as if y'all didn't already know, and am eagily awaiting Australia but I know not to get too excited because it won't be out until 2008 at the earliest. I trust him doing this. Hugh Jackman totally fits into this plot and while Nicole sorta fizzled in Cold Mountain (probably the most comparable), I'm sure Luhrmann (ever the perfectionist, I assume) wouldn't cast her purely out of gratitude.

"I'm taking the perspective of the rest of the world to this film how they might view Australia," Luhrmann said. "When you say Casablanca or Oklahoma! it means big. It means vast … I'm not saying this film is Australia. It's a metaphor for a state of mind, for the faraway."

Check out the entire article at The Age, by clicking here

From the Desk of Hugh Jackman

Dear Stale Popcorn readers,

I'm sure you know who I am. I'm Hugh Jackman! Today, incase you weren't sure, is my 38th birthday. Yeah, I know! That's pretty big. I'm having a pretty big year in general. Firstly, there's my birthday, I'm finishing up my Boy From Oz tour of Australia, I've had two movies out already (X-Men 3 and Scoop. Did you see them?) and I have another four to be released before the end of the year. I voice characters in Happy Feet (alongside Nicole Kidman) and Flushed Away. And next week I get to go all 18th century on y'all arses as a Magician. I get to star with Scarlett Johansson again. I'm lucky. I also have The Fountain, that cinephile's wet dream of sorts.

I then have another seven titles in some form of production. A Plumm Summer could forseeably become my seventh 2006 release. I have The Tourist with Ewan McGregor. I have two projects with Nicole Kidman rearing to go - Baz Luhmann's untitled epic (the one that Russell Crowe dumped) and Wong Kar-Wai's remake of The Lady from Shanghai! Bonza, right? I know. I then have my Wolverine X-Men spinoff and two movies called Rebound Guy and If You Could See Me Now that have been announced. Phew. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Not to mention I'm raising my two kids with my wife Deborra-Lee Furness - by the way, did you see her in Jindabyne? She acted up a storm!

Now, today is indeed my birthday - but you know what? Tomorrow is Glenn's 21st birthday, and that's of equal important. We need people like Glenn. Especially since one of my favourite Aussie bloggers retired. Glenn is one of my biggest fans. Always has been. All the way back when I was making Australian movies like Paperback Hero (which, if I say so myself, I looked mighty fine in thank you very much) and Erskineville Kings <-see that one! It proves I'm not just a really really pretty face with a body to die for a killer singing voice. No siree. Oh, and Glenn has been known to talk about me from time to time.

So, today celebrate ME because I'm awesome and you know it. And then tomorrow celebrate Glenn cause he's awesome and you know it (unless you're that guy who e-mailed him saying you'd bash him to the ground because he criticised Hilary Skank Swank.)

Cheers,

Hugh Jackman

Baz + Nicole - Russell - Heath + Hugh = OMG!

So, after this entry was debunked it seemed that Baz' historic Australian romance epic would be leading man-less for much longer than it turned out to be.


While I am at odds to actually believe anything IMDb throws at us (particular in their people news section), I would be neglegent and remiss to not mention what they are reporting today that, yes indeed, HUGH JACKMAN IS TO STAR.

This makes me much happier than Heath Ledger or Russell Crowe to be honest. Heath just didn't seem like he fit once I got to thinking about it (anything to do with Baz and Nicole results in constant thinking from moi), but Hugh makes more sense. Plus, he's closer in age. Baz (apparently) tells the Hollywood Reporter "'He just continues to astound in terms of his range, whether it's The Boy From Oz or Wolverine. He's always been a leading man, but he is moving toward being an iconic leading man, which is perfect for the story we're doing.'"

So, what do y'all think about this latest development? Yeah, I'm happy! Plus, the fact that it's set in Australia's far-north means Hugh Jackman will have ample opportunity to take his confining heat-trapping clothes off and parade around in as little as possible. :p

Plus, the movie's probably gonna be good too.