Luhrmann Reveals the Title of His New Film

Baz Luhrmann is a man with a pretty creative vision. His treatment of Romeo and Juliet showed the masses that Shakespeare can be hip and entertaining. With Moulin Rouge, he somehow blended a number of obscure and classic songs together in an interesting fictional account of modern music -- although I still wish it wasn't tainted by the over-saturation of Lady Marmalade as sung by dirty, pop-music icons. With that said, his titles have never been shining examples of the written word, but they have been obvious and straight-forward.

With his new film about the land down under, Luhrmann has decided to go epic with the simple name: Australia. Apparently, this one-word dynamo has beaten the likes of Great Southern Land and Faraway Downs. This seems like a good thing, as the former seems a bit ego-driven and the latter, although the name of the homestead in the film, seems like a fairytale horse racing movie that stars a Fanning or a Culkin.

Baz has told The Age that he is trying to express the vastness of Australia, since films like Casablanca and Oklahoma ! mean "big." The film itself is definitely vast in size, set on a ranch the size of Maryland . But is he biting off more than he can chew by already bringing up the likes of well-known classics? Much of Luhrmann's visual magic has relied on lush buildings and interiors, so it will be interesting to see how he tackles the vast sprawl of the outdoors. He could make an epic unlike his other films, as Lynch did with The Straight Story, but I'm hoping he keeps that quirky musical touch and his Luhrmann style.

[via Coming Soon]