The Australian director admits he could see himself filming in New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
From The Great Gatsby to Romeo + Juliet and most recently Elvis, Baz Luhrmann is a man who knows a good thing when he sees it. Which is perhaps why the highly decorated filmmaker is considering making a movie right here in Aotearoa.
Chatting to the Herald via Zoom from the comfort of his Los Angeles home, the Oscar-nominated director reveals what draws him to our shores and what could ultimately sway his decision to film here.
“Between New Zealand and Australia, you’ve got the best possible back wall in the world, because there’s nothing you can’t shoot,” he shares enthusiastically. “You can shoot desert, you can shoot snowy cap mountains, you can shoot jungle, like there’s no movie that you couldn’t make.”
The respected Australian director, who is well connected within the film industry both locally and internationally also references the work of his friends, including Sir Peter Jackson, who, Luhrmann says, would have a large role to play in his decision to film here.
Touching on the Kiwi director’s Wellington-based Wētā Studios - which Luhrmann says is “one of the world’s greatest visual effects companies” - he admits he might just like to borrow its resources if he does ever end up shooting in New Zealand.
“If dear Peter Jackson would like, you know, be prepared to rent me some of his film gear- no I’m just kidding,” the Golden Globe winner smiles as he briefly considers the idea, “I mean, sure.”
Luhrmann is no stranger to creating films away from the comfort of Hollywood’s studios. In fact, some would say, if he is a stranger to anything, it’s Hollywood itself. His 1996 critically acclaimed Romeo + Juliet was filmed in Mexico City. His 2013 film The Great Gatsby was filmed largely in Australia and now Elvis, which was not only filmed but also completed post-production in his home country.
And while there’s no doubt that the boundless environments lure him in, the game changer lies in the passion that comes from the Australian and New Zealand film industries and their people.
“In Australia, and I know it’s true in New Zealand too, filmmaking is not seen as a job. It’s a life, it’s a calling,” the 60-year-old filmmaker pauses, before circling back to the making of Elvis – the film that may soon win him his first Best Picture Oscar on March 13.
“Figure this,” he smiles, “it is the most American of stories. There are the Presleys, and we manage to take and make one of the most American stories, but also create it entirely in Australia and that comes from an extra-special commitment from the practitioners and artisans.”
That “extra-special commitment” is being duly recognised with the film up for not only Best Picture but also seven other awards including Best Costume Design and Best Film Editing.
And while Luhrmann would be so proud to see his wife, Catherine Martin and her 9000 meticulously researched and designed costumes take out the win for Best Costume or the devoted Austin Butler claim Best Actor, there is one person he is not so quietly rooting for.
“I gotta tell you the one that would really, really just make us all just so profoundly happy would be Mandy Walker.”
Walker, an Australian-born cinematographer who worked on the New Zealand-filmed live-action remake of Mulan, is up for Best Cinematography for Elvis. If she wins she will not only make her fellow cast and crew members immensely proud, but will also solidify herself as a trailblazer for other women in the industry.
Luhrmann doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to acknowledging the lack of women in the film industry. In fact, he’s unexpectedly open about it and explains that his friend may have been the one who broke the glass ceiling at the Australian Awards last year with her AACTA win for Best Cinematographer. But as for BAFTA and the Oscars, he says that “glass ceiling” still remains.
“Three women only in 95 years have been nominated. It’s kind of inconceivable,” he says shaking his head. “There’s still a lot of work to be done.”
When it comes to his own work however, Luhrmann admits he needs a bit of time before jumping into another large-scale film project.
Describing himself as a “method director,” the Academy Award winner reveals he fully immersed himself in all things Elvis for over five years.
He went to sleep thinking about the film, dreamed about it and woke up thinking about it, and explains that to move on from such an adrenaline-inducing project is a long process that requires him to do something just as “adventurous and challenging”.
But he’s okay with that because while telling Presley’s story was about giving The King of Rock and Roll “a fair hearing for the spiritual and deeply sensitive and kind person that he really was,” it was also about doing justice to those he left behind.
Presley is survived by his former wife, Priscilla Presley and up until recently, his daughter Lisa Marie Presley - who died after a cardiac arrest in January. Luhrmann became close with the pair in light of the film and admits it was the most nerve-wracking experience of his life when they watched the final cut for the first time.
“Priscilla was a little bit vocal about thinking, ‘How could this boy [Butler] pull it off? And Baz can be a bit different in the way he does stories so it could all be horrible’. But when she saw it, I mean what she wrote to me is one of maybe the greatest reviews I ever got,” he says.
“Not only did she say, ‘I just couldn’t believe it, it was a miracle,’ she said, ‘not only the movement and all that,’ she said, ‘how did Austin know my husband’s inner life? His stillness, the things that no one could have known? How did he connect with that?’”
As for the late Lisa Marie, it’s clear the rawness is still very present for Luhrmann as he recalls her reaction to the film.
“Lisa Marie was very emotional and well, we’ll never forget the look on her face and her bursting into tears,” he says adding, “all they really wanted was that Elvis got a fair hearing in the court of public opinion.”
And based on the instant success and overwhelmingly positive reviews of the film, it would appear the King finally got just that.
Elvis is nominated for eight Acadamy Awards at the Oscars on March 13.
The Kiwi actor has been part of the Star Wars universe for more than 20 years.