When you inevitably go along to see Baz Luhrmann’s big budget epic Australia at the end of the month, which is still in the editing room (yikes!), just remember that Hugh Jackman’s character was originally meant to die in the closing scenes. After the initial 3 hour long cut was recently screened to a test audience, most lauded the performances but believed there was “no reason to kill off” Jackman’s character.

“If they can tastefully tie this movie up into a solid story, with a nice pace, Baz will have a winner here,” one reviewer wrote.

As a result, Luhrmann was pressured by the execs at 20th Century Fox to change the ending to a more uplifting one. Would this be the same 20th Century Fox that reportedly ruined Mathieu Kassovitz vision for Babylon A.D by cutting a rumoured 20 minutes from the final edit? Seems like a production company that doesn’t really believe in the ability of their directors. It’s not like they are compromising the vision of some newbie, this is Baz Luhrmann were talking about! I’m sure though that Luhrmann wouldn’t have agreed if he thought it would dramatically compromise his film, so it might have been the right decision after all.

I really hope that Australia lives up to the enormous expectations set upon it. Not only for the sake of Luhrmann’s impressive track record, but Australia (the nation) needs this film. With the recent economy crisis, Australia needs a box-office smash like this to promote tourism and the almost non-existent Australian film industry.

Source: Herald Sun

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