Australia to hit stateside on DVD and Blu-ray March 3rd

February 10th, 2009 by Alan

Press release available after jump…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AN ADVENTURE AS EPIC AS THE LAND

Academy Award Winner Nicole Kidman & Golden Globe Nominee Hugh Jackman
Star In Visionary Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann’s Romantic Action-Adventure

Debuting On Blu-ray Disc and DVD March 3 From Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

“What a gorgeous film, what strong performances, what exhilarating images and – yes, what sweeping romantic melodrama. The kind of movie that is a ‘movie,’ with all that the word promises and implies.”
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

CENTURY CITY, CA – Venture down under into an epic and romantic action-adventure set in a country on the brink of war when AUSTRALIA debuts on Blu-ray Disc (BD) and DVD March 3 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Helmed by Australian native and Academy Award nominee* Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, Romeo + Juliet) and starring Oscar** winner Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge!, The Hours) and Golden Globe-nominee*** Hugh Jackman (X-Men trilogy, The Prestige), this grand-scale journey, set against the Australian outback, follows an English aristocrat who travels to the faraway continent where she meets a rough-hewn local and reluctantly agrees to join forces with him to save a sprawling cattle ranch she inherited from her late husband. Together, they embark upon a journey across hundreds of miles of the world’s most beautiful yet unforgiving terrain, only to face the enemy Japanese forces. A spectacular saga with romance, drama, beauty, prejudice and danger set against historical fiction, AUSTRALIA “is the rare film that in visual and emotional scope lives up to the word epic.” (Richard Corliss, Time).

Filmed on-location in the vast outback, AUSTRALIA marks Luhrmann’s third collaboration with Kidman and is the first feature film produced as part of a planned trilogy of epic works. The film also represents the work of his wife and creative partner, double Oscar-winning costume designer Catherine Martin (Moulin Rouge!, Romeo + Juliet). Featuring performances from many Aussie natives, the film also stars David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King), Jack Thompson (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil), Bryan Brown (Along Came Polly) and young Aboriginal Brandon Walters in his feature film debut.

*2002: Best Picture (Moulin Rouge!)
**2003: Best Performance for an Actress in a Leading Role (The Hours)
***2002: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Kate & Leopold)

AUSTRALIA

The AUSTRALIA Blu-ray Disc features exclusive bonus materials including over an hour of behind-the- scenes featurettes, deleted scenes and more, and will be available for the suggested retail price of $39.99 U.S. / $49.99 Canada. A single-disc DVD will also be available for the suggested retail price of $29.98 U.S./ $43.48 Canada. Prebook is February 11.

Synopsis:
Set in Australia on the brink of World War II, Lady Sarah Ashley, an English Aristocrat (Kidman), travels to the faraway continent where she has inherited a cattle ranch, owned by her late husband. When Australian cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn local known as The Drover (Jackman) to drive 2,000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country’s most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor. When tragedy strikes and Lady Sarah becomes unofficial guardian to a “half-caste” boy, the unlikely couple must come to terms with a prejudiced society, dishonorable business associates and the impending arrival of the Japanese.

Blu-ray Disc Specs:
The AUSTRALIA BD is authored on a dual-layer 50 GB disc with English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio plus French 5.1 Dolby Surround and English, Spanish, French, Brazilion Portuguese, Cantonese, Korean and Mandarin subtitles. Bonus Features include:

• Australia: The people, the history, the location featurette

Deleted Scenes

• What about the drove?
• Angry staff serve dinner

Behind-the-Scenes

• Photography
• Production Design
• Costume Design
• Locations
• Cinematography
• Sound
• Editing
• Music
• Visual Effects

Single-Disc Specs:
The AUSTRALIA single-disc DVD is presented in widescreen format (2.35:1 aspect ratio) with English, Spanish and French 5.1 Dolby Surround plus English, Spanish and French subtitles. Bonus features include:

• Deleted Scene: What about the drove?
• Deleted Scene: Angry staff serve dinner

Tags: Australia, Baz Luhrmann, Drama, Entertainment, Film, Hugh Jackman, Movies, Nicole Kidman

Categories: Blog, Entertainment