In this undated file photo released by 20th Century Fox, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are shown in a scene from, "Australia."
(James Fisher/20th Century Fox/AP Photo )More Photos
The film camera sweeps across the landscape, taking in flat plains, gushing waterfalls and a dusty country town. The color is brilliant, the emptiness palpable, and the soundtrack soars dramatically as warplanes bomb a city.
This is "Australia," the new movie by award-winning director Baz Luhrmann. The World War II-era romantic epic, which opens later this month, has already been hailed for its cinematography and its pairing of Australian film stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.
But tourism promoters claim the real star of the movie is the country itself.
Tourism Australia, the national tourism board, has launched a $26 million international advertising campaign based on the movie, highlighting the wilderness of Western Australia state and encouraging tourists to refresh themselves by getting away from bustling cities and their busy daily lives.
"We knew that this huge film would create a wave of publicity that would put the country in the spotlight around the globe," said Geoff Buckley, managing director of Tourism Australia. "And we found that the film's story had a remarkable resonance for what we do marketing the country as a travel destination."
The movie premieres Tuesday in Sydney — where the stars will attend — as well as Darwin, Bowen and Kununurra. It opens internationally on Nov. 26.
The film follows the story of a noblewoman on a cattle drive in Australia during World War II. The movie was filmed largely in rugged Western Australia, notably in and around the small town of Kununurra, a three-hour flight north of Perth, and in the California-sized Kimberley wilderness region.
Other film sites include working cattle stations at El Questro and Home Valley, the sandstone escarpments of the Cockburn Range and the striped mounds of the Bungle Bungle Range in Purnululu National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The movie's World War II scenes were mostly filmed in the northwest city of Darwin, where Japanese raids in 1942 and 1943 killed more than 900 people. Visitors to real-life Darwin can see a war memorial related to that attack as well as Stokes Hill Wharf, which provided the backdrop for some of the harbor scenes.
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