Australian paper The Sidney Morning Herald reports that government agency Tourism Australia backed Baz Luhrmann’s big budget epic, Australia, to the tune of US$26.5m, an amount which came from taxpayers’ pockets.
The move was prompted by the belief that the film would boost tourism in Australia, as did the filming of the Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand and Sydney Pollack’s 1985 Oscar-winning Out of Africa in Kenya.
Whether Luhrmann’s Australia proves beneficial for local tourism though remains to be seen as the film has generated mixed reviews and US audiences have not exactly been flocking to see the film. The Syney Morning Herald describes the film’s American opening as a flop.
