Baz Luhrmann's Australia highly rated by Jack Thompson
Article from: The Courier-Mail
By Rodney Chester
May 10, 2008 12:00am
IT might not be in the cinema for another six months, but film legend Jack Thompson has declared Baz Luhrmann's Australia would be one of our best films ever.
Much of the movie was shot around Bowen, which has been chosen to host the national premiere of the movie starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman on November 13.
And while the film has been kept tightly under wraps, Thompson along with other cast members has seen a 12-minute selection of scenes from the finished film.
"They are breathtaking. I cried, I laughed," Thompson said.
"I was knocked out by it. I am so proud of it and I know we're involved in a major Australian film, one of the great Australian films.
"You can never tell until a film is released what people may or may not like about it, but it is no doubt that it is one of the most significant Australian films ever made.
"Just the very scope of it, the heart of it."
If Thompson's prediction is right, the success of Australia could be partly due to the cast list that includes some of the country's best actors.
Jackman, Thompson, and Kidman are joined by David Wenham, David Gulpilil, Ben Mendelsohn, John Jarratt, Ray Barrett and Barry Otto. It is also the first film Thompson and Bryan Brown have made together since Bruce Beresford's 1980 classic Breaker Morant.
Thompson was in Brisbane on Wednesday for the launch of the 2008 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, to be held on the Gold Coast in November, where he was named patron.
For his next big screen role, Thompson reunites with Beresford for Mao's Last Dancer, a historical film shot in China and Australia that is due for release in 2010.
Thompson said the success of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, launched last year, was recognition of the strength of the local film industry.
"When I was a kid, when we played goodies and baddies we adopted an American accent, because goodies and baddies were on the screen and they were all American," he said.
"Unless you were playing a war hero, (then) you adopted a British accent because they made all the good war movies.
"As a result of the development of a film industry in Australia we now have Australian heroes.
"It would have been impossible to even conceive of a major feature film called Australia 30 years ago."
Premier Anna Bligh announced yesterday the awards would have an academy, made up of those nominated for an award, which would strengthen the bonds between the region's various filmmakers.
The awards honour the work of filmmakers selected from more than 70 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
