Australia is an upcoming period epic film directed by Baz Luhrmann. Written by Luhrmann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie with Ronald Harwood also later credited, Australia stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. The story takes place during the bombing of Darwin in Australia during World War II. Production will take place in Sydney, Darwin, Kununurra, and Bowen in Australia. The movie will be released on August 15, 2008 in Australia.

Australia is about Edouard Pierson, a Belgian-born wool dealer who emigrated to Australia after World War Two. The movie actual takes place in Belgium as he returns to his homeland to assist his family with their wool business. Edouard was left a single father after his girlfriend died and when he goes to Belgium he leaves behind this young girl, whom his family don't know about. He meets a beautiful woman, Jeanne, another single parent, and an intense relationship develops. Edouard's relationship with his family has its ups and downs and many secrets are revealed before the movie's conclusion ties everything together. Written by Lloyd Harris

Edouard Pierson, a Belgian-born wool dealer who emigrated to Australia before World War II and was a pilot for the Allies, returns to Belgium in 1955 when his family's wool business faces bankruptcy. He is the single father of a 12-year old girl whom he leaves behind during the trip and whom his family doesn't know about. In Belgium, he meets a beautiful woman, Jeanne, the wife of his family's attorney, and an intense relationship develops. Edouard's relationship with his family has its ups and downs and many secrets are revealed before the movie's conclusion ties everything together. Written by Lloyd Harris

Luhrmann's film is set in northern Australia prior to World War II and centers on an English aristocrat (Kidman) who inherits a cattle station the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn stock-man (Jackman) to drive 2,000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country's most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier.

In this surreal dark comedy, young and downtrodden Cotterfield Potts has been called upon to travel to Australia to save his family's business. Not that the family wants him to go - he's simply their only choice. But before he leaves, he must first journey home to visit the Potts clan one last time. He encounters his siblings as home draws closer, and old tensions build into familial brawls. Simultaneously, Cotterfield begins to have waking dreams of strange Australian landscapes, complete with hordes of magical kangaroos. As his family collapses, Cotterfield must decide if he will go to Australia at all, and what that trip might mean. *Portions of 'Australia' were filmed at the Kangaroo Conservation Center of Dawsonville, Georgia. Written by Keith McCleary