Melbourne, Dec 10 : Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann is set to receive a further blow, for some showbiz pundits are predicting that his much-criticised epic ‘Australia’ will not make any money.

The flick will never be a commercial success in America based on its second-week takings of 7 million dollars, according to influential US showbiz bible Variety.

In total, the film has grossed just a squeak over 30 million dollars – a long way off the 130 million dollars it cost to make.

According to Variety deputy editor Anne Thompson, ‘Australia’ cannot "make it" based on several factors, including its star Nicole Kidman.

Sydney - Business looks bleak for Baz Luhrmann's Australia with opening-day takings in the United States well behind teen vampire romance Twilight, Melbourne's Herald Sun reported Friday.

Quoting figures from entertainment industry bible Variety, the paper said the World War II epic took 3.4 million Australian dollars (2.2 million US dollars) on its first day.

Its box office takings averaged 1,318 Australian dollars per screen, compared with 35,055 Australian dollars per screen earned by box office leader Twilight.

Melbourne, Nov 26 : Aussie moviemaker Baz Luhrmann is using Barack Obama’s historic election victory to raise awareness about his homeland''s shameful past, during which Aboriginal and mixed race kids were removed from their families and raised to be servants to white industry leaders and politicians.

The Moulin Rouge! director has linked Obama to the stolen generations, claiming the US President-elect would have been taken had he been Australian.

Sydney  - Neither masterpiece nor mess, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann's new cinematic epic Australia climbs above mediocrity through its cavalcade of local talent and the spectacular scenery of the Outback, critics said Wednesday.

"The film has broad appeal, particularly to the chick-flick market, with its sweeping, over-long melodramatic saga about cattle drives, the stolen generations, the bombing of Darwin and Hugh Jackman's abs," Jim Schembri wrote in the Canberra Times.

Melbourne, Nov 9 : Baz Luhrmann has dropped the sad ending to his epic film ‘Australia’ after being pressurized by studio executives.

Luhrmann''s initial cut ended with Hugh Jackman''s character, The Drover, dying in the final scenes but after disastrous reviews from test screenings, Twentieth Century Fox executives decided the film''s final moments should be more uplifting. 

Sydney  - Hollywood actor Nicole Kidman's hunky new love doesn't lose his life in the final scene of Australia after director Baz Luhrmann bowed to pressure from Twentieth Century Fox to give the big-budget movie a happy ending, news reports said Sunday.

Luhrmann, who is racing against time to ready the epic for worldwide release on November 26, had initially killed off Hugh Jackman's character, identified only as the Drover, just before the credits rolled.

But the money men at Fox insisted on changes that transform "an action-filled tragedy" into more of a weepy romance, the Sunday Telegraph reported.