FRANCE: Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman walk the red carpet in Paris for Premiere of their movie Australia

Record ID: 384908

  • Title: FRANCE: Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman walk the red carpet in Paris for Premiere of their movie Australia
  • Date: 4th December 2008
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (DECEMBER 1, 2008) (REUTERS) PEOPLE SITTING, WAITING FOR PRESS CONFERENCE TO BEGIN VARIOUS OF DIRECTOR AND ACTORS ARRIVING AND SITTING NICOLE KIDMAN HAVING A GLASS OF WATER DIRECTOR AND ACTORS SITTING IN FRONT OF THE AUDIENCE
  • Embargoed: 19th December 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA78139DFFCVQQPVPABWNMA1KD2
  • Story Text: Premiere in Paris for movie Australia: Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman walk the red carpet.
    Hollywood actors Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman arrived in Paris on Monday (December 1) for a news conference and the red carpet premiere of their new film "Australia".
    The epic movie, the most expensive made in Australia which aims to showcase the rugged continent, its history and indigenous people to the world, was directed by Baz Luhrmann and released amid a blaze of publicity.
    "In terms of leaving Australia and putting down my roots in America, I think ultimately, wherever your loved ones are is your home and so even though I've travelled the world and lived in Tennessee and I was born in Australia, I consider myself a sort of a citizen of the world and live all over the place. So I don't feel like I've left anywhere but I feel like I certainly belong to somewhere," Nicole Kidman said after being asked if the movie had special meaning to her because of her Australian nationality.
    Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, both Australian co-stars in the movie, have both carved out lucrative Hollywood careers but wanted to work with Luhrmann, a perfectionist who was so busy editing the film until the last moment that the cast did not see it before the premiere.

    "I'm not sure if you're aware of the universal lie that that all actors tell, which is that they can ride horses, 'cause when a director says "Can you ride ?" Oh mais oui (oh yes) of course ! And however when Baz sent me the script, I didn't lie about it because it was very clear that I was out of my depth and so there began a journey for me of probably seven months before we filmed riding pretty much almost every day," Jackman joked during a news conference in Paris.
    The two-hour 40-minute long movie, which is reported to have cost News Corp's 20th Century Fox about 130 million U.S. dollars, is a World War Two drama set in the stunning Australian landscape.
    An English aristocrat (Kidman) travels to Australia and joins forces with a "drover" or cowboy (Jackman) and an Aboriginal child to drive a herd of cattle across Australia, falling in love along the way.

    "Hopefully it's a romantic movie, I wanted to make a movie that was some... That was, you know, special for our country and that was also about love and about letting go the people that you love so that they find their place in the world, which is, you know, a really important thing to do," said Kidman as she walked the red carpet at the Champs Elysee in Paris.
    Australia is pinning high hopes on the romantic adventure, which Luhrmann said he had filmed in the style of "Gone With The Wind"
    hoping to make his mark on Australian film history, but it remained to be seen if it would draw audiences globally.
    "The movie comes out at time where the world is very unsure and it's changing day by day and in this movie, which culminates during World War II, the bombing of Darwin, city in the North of Australia, it really... what it is saying is no matter what happens, no matter what uncertainty there is, the most important thing is you're with the people you love and that there is hope. And the movie has got a hopeful kind of ending to it and I think there's a great line "just because it is, it doesn't mean it should be." And I think that's, well it looks like what has happened in America, Barack Obama has been elected president, I mean, who would have thought that that would happen ?" said Hugh Jackman at the Paris premiere.

    "I hope more than anything, you know, in a world that is disintegrating and falling apart and in terror and fear, that like the characters at the end of this film that you recognize that all that really matters in the end is that you're with the people that you love, and that love you, and the feeling that life goes on. You know the rain will fall, the grass grows green and life begins again," added Baz Lurhman, the director of the film.
    Australian filmmakers hope the movie will revive interest in an industry that did well with quirky films like "Crocodile Dundee,"
    "Muriel's Wedding" and "Babe" but has slipped in popularity after a few years of bleak, box-office failures.
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