Faraway Downs: Baz Luhrmann’s new cut of Australia starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman gets a world premiere

Baz Luhrmann’s new cut of Australia, titled Faraway Downs, lands a world premiere date at inaugural SXSW Sydney.

Baz Luhrmann’s Faraway Downs, a reimagined extended version of the filmmaker’s 2008 film Australia, is heading to the inaugural SXSW Sydney celebration! Also, Luhrmann will attend the event and present the film in person on closing night, October 21, 2023. If you cannot attend, have no fear; all six chapters of Faraway Downs head to Hulu in the United States, Star+ in Latin America, and Disney+ in all other territories on November 26, 2023.

“I was inspired to re-approach my film Australia to create Faraway Downs because of the way episodic storytelling has been reinvigorated by the streaming world,” said Baz Luhrmann. “With over 2 million feet of film from the original piece, my team and I were able to revisit anew the central themes of the work. I am honored to world premiere Faraway Downs in Australia, the place that has inspired me and my work my entire life, and with a partner like SXSW who deeply recognizes the intersection of film, television and music with storytelling.”

“We are so happy to be sharing the creative work of Baz Luhrmann and the entire Faraway Downs team at Australia’s first ever SXSW Sydney,” said Colin Daniels, SXSW Sydney Managing Director.

“I originally set out to take the notion of the sweeping, Gone With the Wind-style epic and turn it on its head – a way of using romance and epic drama to shine a light on the roles of First Nations people and the painful scar in Australian history of the ‘Stolen Generations,’” said Luhrmann in 2022. “While Australia the film has its own life, there was another telling of this story; one with different layers, nuances and even alternative plot twists that an episodic format has allowed us to explore. Drawn from the same material, Faraway Downs is a new variation on Australia for audiences to discover.”

Starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Bryan Brown, Brandon Walters and Ben Mendelsohn, the story centers on English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman), who travels halfway across the world to confront her wayward husband and sell an unusual asset: Faraway Downs, a million-acre cattle ranch in the Australian outback. Following the death of her husband, a ruthless Australian cattle baron, King Carney (Bryan Brown) plots to take her land, and she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn cattle drover (Hugh Jackman) to protect her ranch. The sweeping adventure-romance is explored through the eyes of young Nullah (Brandon Walters), an 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.

Are you looking forward to Luhrmann’s Faraway Downs? I’m interested to see how the filmmaker can make his romance epic even more so with this new version.