Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Faraway Downs’ to World Premiere at Inaugural SXSW Sydney Fest

Baz Luhrmann’s Faraway Downs, a six part series that extends his 2008 epic Australia, will close the inaugural SXSW Sydney Screen Festival on Oct. 21 with a world premiere.

The Elvis filmmaker will be on hand to present the limited series told in six chapters and starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Bryan Brown, Brandon Walters and Ben Mendelsohn. The SXSW festival bow will be followed by Faraway Downs launching simultaneously on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America and on Disney+ in all other territories on Nov. 26, 2023.

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Faraway Downs, with 20th Television as the studio, will expand on Australia, which starred Kidman and Jackman, using original footage and a new ending and updated soundtrack. When Australia first premiered in 2008, Luhrmann said he had filmed three endings. The theatrical cut of Australia has a running time of two hours, 45 minutes. There’s no word on how long the full six-episode series will run.

The reimagined limited series will tell the story of an English aristocrat, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) who inherits a large cattle ranch in Australia after her husband dies. When Australian cattle barons plot to take her land, she joins forces with a cattle drover or herder (Hugh Jackman) to protect her ranch.

The story is explored through the eyes of young Nullah (Brandon Walters), a bi-racial Indigenous Australian child caught up in the government’s draconian racial policy now referred to as the “Stolen Generations.” The trio experiences four life-altering years, a love affair between Sarah and the drover and the unavoidable impact of World War II on northern Australia.

“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. 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,” Luhrmann said in a statement as he gets set to debut the series in his native Australia.

He directed, produced and co-wrote Faraway Downs alongside writers Stuart Beattie, Ronald Harwood and Richard Flanagan, with production and costume design by Oscar winner Catherine Martin. The series is executive produced by Luhrmann and Martin, along with Catherine Knapman and Schuyler Weiss. Knapman was a producer and Martin a co-producer of the 2008 film.

The inaugural SXSW Sydney 2023 Screen Festival will run from Oct. 15 to 21.

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