Oprah Oscar buzz for movie
2008-11-17 20:03
Sydney - Baz Luhrmann hadn't even finished his much-anticipated outback epic Australia when the world heard the news that could make the movie a blockbuster - Oprah Winfrey loves it.
The acclaimed Australian director was still to put his finishing touches to the movie, which has been beset by production delays and shrouded in secrecy, when the US talk show queen made her pronouncement.
"Our hearts are all swelling because, my God, it's just the film we needed to see," Winfrey said after watching a special preview of the sweeping romance set on the brink of WWII.
"I have not been this excited about a movie since I don't know when," she said during a broadcast devoted entirely to the movie and its stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.
From a set designed to look like an Australian outback cattle station for the show, Winfrey served up praise for Luhrmann, congratulating him on "your imagination, your vision, your creativity, your direction."
Hoping for increase in tourism
Much is riding on the success of the movie, which has reportedly cost 20th Century Fox upward of AU$130m ($84.4m) and was shot on location in Sydney and the country's inhospitable north.
The Australian film industry is hoping that it will result in a new-wave of US-studio backed movie-making here while tourism officials hope the romantic drama will inspire travel Down Under as Crocodile Dundee did in the 1980s.
The movie, which features an English aristocrat played by Kidman falling for the rough charms of a cattle drover played by Jackman as they cross the country, will likely benefit visually from the stunning scenery of Australia's north.
But for now, Winfrey's word is all there is to go on as to whether the epic, which also includes scenes of the Japanese WWII bombing of Darwin, will be a success ahead of its world premiere in Sydney on Tuesday.
But entertainment blogger for Los Angeles Times' film awards website The Envelope, Tom O'Neil, says that could be enough to sway opinion.
Everyone trusts Oprah
"Everyone trusts Oprah," he told AFP from the United States.
"American film critics had been dreading seeing Australia because it looks like a dud.
"It's the only major Oscar contender not shown to any journalists so that makes us suspicious that there's something really wrong with this movie.
"The release of the trailer didn't help anything at all because it's such a bland teaser for the film that it didn't suggest there might be anything extraordinary here. Everyone just kind of shrugged, 'Oh, it's Out of Africa 25 years later.'
"And what Oprah managed to do was flip that totally for Baz."
- AFP