IT’S not Oklahoma!, it’s not Gone With The Wind and it’s definitely not a musical.

But Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe will feature in a “sweeping romance” for Baz Luhrmann.

“Yes, and it’s very passionate,” the Moulin Rouge! director said of the two stars’ on-screen relationship.

The epic begins in the mid-1930s and ends with its major set piece, the 1942-43 Japanese bombing of Darwin and the exodus south, which became known as the Adelaide River Stakes.

Luhrmann, who has researched the film for 10 years, said the tale, co-written by Collateral’s Stuart Beattie and The Pianist’s Ron Harwood, will be a “mythological telling” drawn from books and historic materials.

“Russell, Nicole and I have been wanting to do a large Australian piece for a very long time,” he said.

It is understood both actors have dramatically lowered their fees in order to collaborate with Luhrmann.

Shooting begins in August on location in the Kimberleys, Darwin and Queensland.

“We’re in a unique moment where we can make an Australian film on a scale that’s never been made about Australia with Australian actors in all the primary and lead roles,” Luhrmann said.