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.

The Industry At Large

So, there's about to be a major shakeup of the way films are funded in Australia. At the moment most films are submitted to respective funding bodies (the major ones being the Australian Film Commission and the Film Finance Corporation (you've probably seen their logos before an Aussie movie you see) as well as a major funding body for each Australian state and territory. There's usually a bit of private investment, although entire films funded this way are rare - Kenny being a perfect example. It was a film about a portaloo plumber and it was funded by Splashdown, a brand of portaloo caterers. It subsequently grossed something like $8 million and Splashdown were mighty happy.

But, as this article at the Sydney Morning Herald discusses (with quotes from high profile Aussie directors such as recent Oscar-winner George Miller (Happy Feet) and Fred Schepisi) the industry and what is going wrong/right and how these new changes could effect it.

I wasn't going to discuss this but just now I read an article that came with my AFI subscription email. It's an interview with Robert Connolly who has won AFI awards for his work on The Bank (which he directed and wrote) and for Rowan Woods' The Boys (Rowan, is now directing Jennifer Hudson, remember) and is producing Richard Roxburgh's upcoming Romulus, My Father with Eric Bana.

He brings up a painfully obvious problem that was also a major focus of the SMH piece, the fact that we (er, the country of Australia) have trouble when it comes to the development stage of films. It's all well and good to give a movie like Suburban Mayhem a nice slice of cash to use, but there was no way in hell that film was going to make any money at the box office without a star or advertising muscle. These funding bodies will give nearly $5mil to The Book of Revelation, an R18+ rated film that grossed pathetic numbers (not really unexpected).

There is the problem with the "bigger stars" debate though. One could argue that Tom Long, Colin Friels, Deborah Mailman and Gretta Scachi (all in Book of Revelation) is quite a bit of starpower for a locally made movie. Of course, it's not like it's up there with Little Fish, which somehow managed to recruit Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving, or Candy, which roped in Heath Ledger and Geoffrey Rush. But then, those two movies were big at the box office (as Aussie films go), but so was Kenny and Ten Canoes and they had nobody that anyone knew (unless you count Canoes' narrator, David Gulpilil). And Little Fish and Candy barely made even a speck-sized scratch on the car that is the US box office, despite having Blanchett and Ledger.

It'll be interesting to see how the industry progresses. Because Australian filmmakers and actors are see as "hot commodities" and because our industry is so small (there's a rumour going around that Cassandra Magrath is working as a waitress. How sad), as soon as they're noticed by someone in America or England they ship on out (I know I would). It's a tricky landmine of a topic because there are so many variables in play. What of the internationally-funded Aussie flicks like Happy Feet or Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! and his upcoming Australia.

It's tricky and it hurts my brain to think about it. I love my country and I occasionally love the films it produces (there are two Aussie films on my 2006 Top 10), but while things look to be on the upstick quality wise, we're not exactly in that national reneissance that we went through in the '90s where in quick succession we produced worldwide hits (and Oscar winners) such as The Adventures of Priscilla, Muriel's Wedding, Strictly Ballroom even The Piano, a joint production between Australia and New Zealand, as well as several others. If anything, it was that period that ruined it for the late '90s/early 2000s because, as I said, all our talent got shipped off overseas including Guy Pearce, Hugo Weaving, Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, PJ Hogan, Baz Luhrmann, Jane Campion as some of the ones from just that field of four.

Aah, I'm just rambling now. I'm hungry too so I'm gonna go eat.

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.

Time Goes By (For Directors)...

...so slowly, unfortunately.

Now, you guys are all here for one reason: Movies. I know it. You know it. We all know it. Everybody has their own peeves when it comes to the movie business. Some can't stand movies over two hours. Others can't stomach remakes or sequels (so, what? you see three movies a year? teehee).

Two of my biggest peeves are release dates (a frequent topic of anger at Stale Popcorn) and directors who take too long between movies. I though I'd take a look at three of my favourite directors and their movie-making habits. Feel free to comment at the end about your favourite time-wasting directors. Do they do it to torture us? Do they it so we savor their films moreso? Eitherway, it frustrates me. I want more of the people I adore.

...Read the rest as part of my guest blogging stint at The Film Experience.

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.

Sofia = Baz... just more prolific

Okay, so, get this: SOFIA COPPOLA WILL DIRECT A PUCCINI OPERA!!!

Is this not a big freaky coincidence?

Bare with me.


In 1992 Baz Luhrmann makes his first film, Strictly Ballroom. The first in his "Red Curtain Trilogy". It sets up his fanbase.

In 2000 Sofia Coppola makes her first film, The Virgin Suicides. The first in her "Little Girl Lost Trilogy". It sets up her fanbase.

In 1996 Baz Luhmann makes his second film, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. The second in his "Red Curtain Trilogy". It affirms his fanbase, while also becoming popular with teenage girls. Features rising actress Clare Danes. Features a scene in a pool.

In 2003 Sofia Coppola makes her second film, Lost in Translation. The second in her "Little Girl Lost Trilogy". It affirms her fanbase, while also becoming popular with teenage girls. Features rising actress Scarlett Johansson. Features a scene in a pool.

In 2001 Baz Luhrmann makes his third film, Moulin Rouge!. The third and final in his "Red Curtain Trilogy". It premieres at the Cannes Film Festival and it polarises critics and audiences with it's radical usage of modern music in a famous period French setting (the Moulin Rouge). Film is obsessed with the colour red, features a big elephant and is about a tragic woman. Singer Kylie Minogue cameos.

In 2006 Sofia Coppola makes her third film, Marie Antoinette. The third and final in her "Little Girl Lost Trilogy". It premieres at the Cannes Film Festival and it polarises critics and audiences with it's radical usage of modern music in a famous period French setting (Versailles). Film is obsessed with the colour pink, features a big elephant and is about a tragic woman. Musical group Phoenix cameo.

In 2003 Baz Luhrmann directs Puccini's La Boheme for Broadway.

In 2009 Sofia Coppola will direct Puccini's Manon Lescaut for France's Montpelliar Opera House.


...so what's next? Well, as we all know, Baz is filming his historical romantic epic Australia for release in 2008. Will Sofia follow suit and make a historical romantic epic? That'd be interesting, non? I just wish Baz had less time between his film projects. Seven years is too many! Any thoughts, people?

I Heart Baz

And that's final.

Hugh Jackman = Clint Eastwood, apparently.

Happy Australia Day! Part IV

I'm feeling really crook today (I'll spare you the gruesome details) so you're not gonna get much outta me, unfortunately. I've compiled a few YouTube clips relating to Australian films. Enjoy.


A nifty clip from an Australian Film Institute awards show several years back. It's a montage of tiny clips from Australian films. That scream from Picnic at Hanging Rock is just freaky! And speaking of Picnic at Hanging Rock...


...here's a tiny tiny clip from it. Man, that movie is brilliant.


Nicole Kidman and Baz Luhrmann discussing Moulin Rouge! after their wins at the Golden Globes back at the start of 2002. The interesting thing is when Baz says that he's happy to know there's an audience for a musical around the world, because in 2001 people were like "a musical!? FLOP!" but now everyone just expects them to be big huge successes for some reason. I love these two so much. How awesome is Australia going to be? VERY awesome, I predict.

Nicole: You're speaking really fast!
Baz: ...I'm Australian

I speak fast! Me and Baz are like brothers! Okay, not really...

The Saviour - Part 1


The Saviour - Part 2

This is the Academy Award nominated short feature Saviour. It was nominated this year and I found it on YouTube, so have a gander. It's pretty good. It's about a young mormon who is having an affair with an athiest. I never thought Rhys Muldoon would ever be in something Oscar-nominated, that's for sure.

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!!!!!

The AFI Awards: The Highs, The Lows and the Downright Bizarre

So... it was a strange night. There were big winners, and there were big bloody surprises (and not the good kind for the most part).

The Lows
Deborra-Lee Furness losing Best Supporting Actress - Seriously. I just... I... I... *shakes head* It's just wrong. And to Susie Porter, who just minutes before winning this category won a different prize (the one I did predict she'd win). I mean, I understand why (she'd been nominated three times before with no wins), but giving her two statues was just greedy. Deborra-Lee - If you're feeling down, please give me a call (or better yet, let Hugh). Also, read Stinky LuLu's on January 7. I'll give you a nice present. Jindabyne went home empty, quite strangely. I don't really understand why.

The Technical Awards - Not even announcing the winners in some form during the big night. I can understand having them seperated (nobody wants to see them, they just drag it out) but it'd be nice that people know Ten Canoes won an extra three awards or that Macbeth won two or so one.

The Dresses - Not the quality of the dresses - Victoria Hill, Dannii Minogue, Saskia Burmeister all looked stunning - but that's the thing. We didn't see enough of them.

The stage - It was huge yet so freakin' empty. Except for the podium and some weird lighting... things, there was nothing there. So the award girl just had to stand there looking awkward and when Geoffrey Rush wasn't at the podium he too just had to stand in the vacant nothingness.

The production - Poor lighting (way too dark), sitting nominees way too far from the stage (including a woman, who won, who was pregnant), and just a general oddness about the whole affair. Nobody knew what they were doing or where they were going and everyone got lost. It was strange. Plus, whenever they cut to people's reactions it wasn't interesting and was usually of somebody nobody knew.

Gargoyle winning - After Furness, this was the strangest win of the night. I didn't think anybody liked it.

Magda Szubanski - I'm sorry love, the jig is up. When you're outclassed and outjoked by Dannii Minogue you know there's a problem. And it sort of soured a win that Heath Ledger by all accounts should have been proud about.

Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish - The Candy stars... umm... okay, if this is what a Ledger exceptance speech is then maybe it's a good thing he didn't get the Oscar (okay, that will never be true, but you get the drift). So... uninterested and off with the fairies. Although I'll give him credit for pashing Magda and then joking about it later, for his Brokeback Mountain joke ("I just can't seem to get away from this movie") and for, well, showing up. And Abbie Cornish? As Seinfeld once taught us you can't just "acquire" grace and lordy does this girl have no grace. Sorry love, you're a champ but, dear god it's called SMILING ("Smile. ... Don't Smile.")

Those weird interludes - They just kind of popped up out of nowhere. Like at EUROVISION!

David Campbell - I'm sorry, you exist... why?

The Downright Bizarre
Geoffrey Rush - Sometimes he knew what he was doing and at others times he went on weird tangents about cookies and other random things. He did a strange strange job. Can I make a suggestion for next year? Julie Zamiro kthnx.

Johnny Depp - HOLYOHMYGODFREAKINGJESUSCHRISTSONOFGODMOTHERMARY what the fuck was that? Like... that was probably the most surreal moment ever in the history of forever.

The clips - It's as if the producers had no idea what clips to show for certain people so they just showed them STARING AT SOMETHING or SHAKING THEIR BODY AROUND or CRYING AND THEN BREATHING REALLY HEAVY - although, I suppose it would be hard to pick a clip of Teresa Palmer that wasn't a) of her crying or breathing heavily, or b) of her being raped. But, still, for Susie Porter's clip they showed her covering her face as she cried. I did love the delightful inclusion of profanity in the clips though. "Shit" and "Fuck" could be heard everywhere.

Sam Neill - I'm fairly certain he was drunk as a skunk and slurred his way through a Rolf de Heer tribute that was...

Rolf de Heer Tribute - ...so bland you could feel the room falling asleep. Does Sam Neill even like de Heer? And the presentation? One clip from four of his movies (The Tracker, The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, Dance Me To My Song and Bad Boy Bubby) that didn't really show much about him at all. And they didn't even include Ten Canoes? WTF?

Laura Linney and Gabriel Byrne - Hey, you guys nominated them! The least you could've done was applaud. Maybe if they'd bothered to show up... compare that to the applause Ten Canoes and Kenny (especially) received.

Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin - Baz was either drunk or still pissed off about that whole Lantana beating Moulin Rouge! thing from 2001. Either way he was strange. And Catherine Martin? Oh sweet baby Jesus. Catherine Martin. Why is it that costume and fashion designers always wear such hideous abominations to big events? And then there's... the walk. I love Catherine Martin (seriously, I want her to design my afterlife) but she is as unglamourous a walker as I've ever seen (and I've seen a few, quite obviously uncomfortable, drag queens in my time). I'm not sure what was going on with that (as my friend Simon called it) upside-down cupcake dress, but she was stomping around something crazy.

Radha Mitchell - She was nominated in the Internation Performance category for Silent Hill. I KNOW!!! Hilarious, right?

THE GOOD
The winners - For the most part, they were good. Yay for Ten Canoes sweeping the pool with six trophies.

That Sony Blu-Ray plug - Rush and Depp used again in a joke, but this time it was funny and not at all my-head-is-gonna-explode-from-my-eyes-bugging-out-of-my-head-so-much...ish?

The Elizabeth sketch - The bit of the night. Stealing a scene from Elizabeth (or was it actually from The Golden Years?) with Rush putting his own dialogue over the top. Geoffrey: "If you don't go to the AFI awards we'll get... Helen Mirren. She's played Queen Elizabeth the First and Queen Elizabeth the Second" Cate: "THAT WHORE!" - i paraphrased that entire thing, but you catch the drift, right?

Daniel Radcliffe - Strangely, he was one of the best presenters.

Er, that's about all. I'll do my roundup of the winners tomorrow, but I predicted all of the four major categories, missed the supporting ones and screenplays, predicted most of the rest. Ten Canoes took out Best Film in the end.

Congrats Sofia!

Sofia Coppola popped a baby out! This is the first child for Coppola and her boyfriend - Phoenix singer Thomas Mars. She gave birth to a girl on Tuesday in France.

Now, we just gotta hope that this doesn't turn her into some Baz Luhrmann/David Lynch type director making a new movie only every five years. I'm still eagerly anticipating Marie Antoinette, which is released down here on Boxing Day.

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

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.