Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Faraway Downs’ Trailer Builds on ‘Australia’
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Hulu’s Faraway Downs might be the most unusual limited series of 2023 — in that it has its roots in a film from 2008.
Director Baz Luhrmann (Elvis, Moulin Rouge!) reimagined and expanded his film Australia into the six-episode series, which is set to premiere Nov. 26 on Hulu in the United States and Disney+ and Star+ internationally. Hulu on Thursday released a trailer for the series (watch it below).
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“While Australia the film has its own life, there was another telling of this story; one with different layers, nuances and even alternative plot twists that an episodic format has allowed us to explore,” Luhrmann said when the project was announced in June 2022. “Drawn from the same material, Faraway Downs is a new variation on Australia for audiences to discover.”
The series will follow the same basic story as Australia: that of Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman), who inherits a large cattle ranch — the Faraway Downs of the title — after her husband dies. A cattle baron, King Carney (Bryan Brown), plots to take her land, and she reluctantly joins forces with a cattle drover (Hugh Jackman) to protect the ranch. The story is explored through the eyes of Nullah (Brandon Walters), a bi-racial Indigenous Australian child caught up in the government’s draconian racial policy that’s now known as the “Stolen Generations.”
The series was assembled entirely from footage Luhrmann shot for Australia. The film has a 165-minute running time, but Faraway Downs will presumably go considerably longer than that.
The series is set to have its world premiere at the closing night of the inaugural SXSW Sydney Screen Festival on Oct. 21. (The Hollywood Reporter parent company Penske Media’s P-MRC Holdings has a 50 percent stake in SXSW.)
Watch the trailer below.
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