Still unfinished, Australia gets a new ending

As we edge closer to its Nov. 26 release, the prospects for Baz Luhrmann’s Australia have become increasingly bleak. By Luhrmann’s own admission, the long-awaited war epic remains unfinished. Its budget has soared north of $130 million by some estimates. And now, it looks as if we might not even see the movie as Luhrmann intended it.

The first cut of the film evidently didn’t test well because its final moments were deemed too downbeat. Luhrmann has final cut on the project, but at Fox’s doubtlessly blunt suggestion, he reportedly switched to a happier finale. Of course, if this is indeed the case, it’s possible that the new ending worked for Buhrmann too, but that would be a rare exception to the long history of studio “notes” on major-budget movies.

Luhrmann himself weighed in on the rumors this week in the Los Angeles Times, vaguely suggesting they were not totally accurate. “What’s interesting is I wrote, I think, six endings in all the drafts I did, shot three, and I ended up concluding the film in a way in which I—probably more than anyone—least expected,” he said. “And there is a death in the ending of the film, by the way. It’s a bit of a twist, and I won’t give it away.”

Although it wasn’t clear to which endings he was referring, he added: “And, incidentally, the two endings, by the way, tested completely the same essentially, you know? They really did in the numbers. But I came up with a third ending, and the ending that I’ve created about the film came from a place of a response, actually, to the thing that I wanted the movie to be—the important, big idea of the movie—how to amplify that big idea.”
 
Decipher that how you will. In a bit of good news, Luhrmann recently screened a rough cut of the film for an Oprah audience ahead of an appearance on her show, and the reaction was breathlessly positive. It’s not clear if that means anything (the audience was heavily goaded by Oprah), but at this point, Australia needs all the affirmative buzz it can get.

Related links:
Trailer Stash: Australia, Benjamin Button and Seven Pounds
AustraliaMovie.com
Baz Luhrmann on IMDb

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.