Australia (Hugh Jackman & Nicole Kidman)

Australia is an Australian epic romance film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. The screenplay was written by Luhrmann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie, with Ronald Harwood. The film is a character story, set between 1939 and 1942 against a dramatised backdrop of events across Northern Australia at the time, such as the bombing of Darwin in Australia during World War II. Production took place in Sydney, Darwin, Kununurra, and Bowen. The movie was to be released on 13 November 2008 in Australia[1] and 16 November 2008 in the United States;[2] however, Fox announced that it had pushed back the release dates in both Australia and the United States to 26 November 2008,[3] with subsequent worldwide release dates throughout late December and January 2009.



Plot
In 1939, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) travels from England to northern Australia to force her husband to sell a cattle station. Her husband is murdered shortly before she arrives, with suspicions that he was killed by an Aboriginal elder, "King George" (David Gulpilil). The actual murderer is a white man, Neil Fletcher (David Wenham), trying to gain control of Ashley's cattle station "Faraway Downs", so that Lesley 'King' Carney (Bryan Brown) can have a cattle monopoly in the Northern Territory, which will give him negotiating leverage with an Australian army officer, Captain Dutton (Ben Mendelsohn). The childless Lady Ashley is captivated by a young half-caste boy, Nullah (Brandon Walters), who was born to an Aboriginal mother and a white father. When Lady Sarah sees Fletcher mistreating the Aborigines, she fires him and decides to try and run the station herself. She persuades her husband's Drover (Hugh Jackman) to take the cattle to Darwin for sale. Drover, a white man, is friendly with the Aborigines, and therefore shunned by many of the other whites in the territory. It is revealed that he had married an Aboriginal woman, but she had died after being refused medical treatment in a local hospital because of her race.
Drover leads a team of six other riders, including Lady Sarah, Drover's Aboriginal brother-in-law Magarri (David Ngoombujarra), Nullah, and the station's accountant Kipling Flynn (Jack Thompson), to drive the 1,500 cattle to Darwin. They encounter various obstacles along the way, including the death of Flynn. However, Lady Sarah and Drover develop a romance, and she gains a new appreciation for the Australian territory. After they successfully deliver the cattle, Lady Sarah, Nullah, and Drover live together happily for two years. However, Fletcher kills Carney and marries Carney's daughter Cath Carney, takes over his empire, and then continues to menace Lady Sarah.
Nullah is drawn to perform a walkabout, but is instead captured by the authorities and sent to live with other half-caste children on Mission Island. Lady Sarah vows to rescue him, but first works as a radio operator during the escalating war. When the Japanese attack the island and Darwin in 1942, Lady Sarah fears that Nullah was killed, and Drover and Nullah hear (mistakenly) that Sarah was killed. The Drover rescues the children from the island, and when they sail back into port at Darwin, Nullah plays his harmonica with the tune of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the film The Wizard of Oz. Lady Sarah hears the music, and their family is reunited. On the way back to Faraway Downs, King George calls for his grandson, who returns to the outback with his grandfather.

Cast

• Nicole Kidman as Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who inherits the cattle station Faraway Downs in Australia
  
• Hugh Jackman as an (unnamed) Australian drover who helps Lady Sarah Ashley move the cattle across the property
  
• David Wenham as Neil Fletcher, a station manager who plans to take Faraway Downs from Lady Sarah Ashley
  
• Jack Thompson as Kipling Flynn, an alcoholic accountant who enjoys a luxurious lifestyle
  
• Bryan Brown as King Carney, a cattle baron who owns much of the land in northern Australia
  
• Brandon Walters as the drover's assistant Nullah, a young boy who helps drive the cattle for Lady Sarah Ashley
  
• David Gulpilil as King George, a magic tribal elder
  
• Essie Davis as Cath Carney, wife of Neil Flecther and daughter of King Carney
  
• Ben Mendelsohn as Captain Emmett Dutton
  
• Barry Otto as Administrator Allsop, the Queen's representative in the Northern Territory
  
• David Ngoombujarra as Magarri, the Drover's colleague and friend
  

Australia 2008 Movie Official Trailer