Fresh off the splashy launching of Elvis and its $31 million opening-weekend box office haul, maximalist filmmaker Baz Luhrmann has actually set his next job. An extended variation of Australia, his 2008 romantic epic starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, is ending up being a minimal series.Titled Faraway
Downs, the almost three-hour movie will be changed into a six-part Hulu series that premieres this winter, Range reports. The reimagining will reportedly include footage from the initial film, a new ending, and revitalized soundtrack.
“I originally set out to take the idea of the sweeping Opted for the Wind– style epic and turn it on its head,” Luhrmann told Variety. “A method of using love and epic drama to shine a light on the functions of First Nations people and the agonizing scar in Australian history of the ‘Stolen Generations.’ While Australia the film has its own life, there was another telling of this story; [one that consists of] alternative plot twists that an episodic format has actually enabled us to check out.”
The brand-new show is called after the big ranches that Kidman’s Lady Sarah Ashley acquires when her husband passes away right before World War II. When livestock tycoons threaten to take her property, the English aristocrat signs up with forces with Jackman’s rough-and-ready Drover. Together with their unlikely romance is the tale of Nullah (Brandon Walters), a biracial Native child whose existence is upended by Australia’s “Stolen Generations” policy. This uncomfortable period in the region’s history separated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids from their households. The practice often subjected children to abuse and barred them from speaking their native language.
“Baz is one of the world’s fantastic auteur writers, so revisiting Faraway Downs and experiencing his amazing film Australia in this special, brand-new episodic format has been a revelatory and special adventure,” Craig Erwich, president of Hulu Originals and ABC Home entertainment, told Range. “We look forward to taking viewers into the cattle ranch and to experiencing all of the stories that are both held within and continue to unfold there.”