Baz Luhrmann will debut Faraway Downs, a six-part series that serves as a kind of epic, serial director’s cut of Australia, will close out the SXSW Sydney Screen Festival later this month. The movie, which originally clocked in at just under three hours, has been recut and has a new ending, although it’s likely not “new” as in filmed in 2023, but rather “new” in that Luhrmann reportedly had hours of unused footage in the original film, including three different endings. There’s no word just yet on the exact runtime of the serialized version, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Faraway Downs will premiere at the closing night of the SXSW Sydney Screen Festival on October 21, with Luhrmann in attendance. The series (like the movie) stars Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, and Ben Mendelsohn. Faraway Downs will follow up the convention premiere with a simultaneous launch on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America, and Disney+ in all other territories on November 26.
“I was inspired to re-approach my film Australia to create Faraway Downs because of the way episodic storytelling has been reinvigorated by the streaming world,” Lurmann said in a statement. “With over 2 million feet of film from the original piece, my team and I were able to revisit anew the central themes of the work.”
Australia centered on Sarah Ashley (Kidman), a British Lady who, with the world about to be plunged into World War II, inherits an Australian cattle ranch and travels to inspect it. There she meets a local man (Jackman) and follows him on a cattle drive across hundreds of miles of harsh outback terrain. Once they reach their destination, there’s still more to contend with, in the form of Japanese bombers fresh off their attack on Pearl Harbor.
The original film debuted in 2008.
Here’s the official synopsis for Faraway Downs:
Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) travels halfway across the world to confront her wayward husband and sell an unusual asset: Faraway Downs, a million-acre cattle ranch in the Australian outback. Following the death of her husband, a ruthless Australian cattle baron, King Carney (Bryan Brown) plots to take her land, and she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn cattle drover (Jackman) to protect her ranch. The sweeping adventure-romance is explored through the eyes of young Nullah (Brandon Walters), an Indigenous Australian child caught up in the government’s Draconian racial policy now referred to as the Stolen Generations. Together, the trio experiences four life-altering years, a love affair between Lady Ashley and the drover, and the unavoidable impact of World War II on Northern Australia.
