A sweeping, romantic epic — possibly Australia’s biggest and most expensive movie to be made — will be filmed in the Kimberleys of Western Australia, Darwin in the Northern Territory and in the state of Queensland. The film, whose title has not yet been announced, will be directed by celebrated Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and stars Oscar winners Nicole Kidman (The Hours) and Russell Crowe (Gladiator).

Luhrmann is expected to rehearse his Australian stars in Los Angeles next month and begin shooting five months later.

Luhrmann has directed Kidman previously in Moulin Rouge.

Luhrmann first came to film prominence with Strictly Dancing which was then followed by Romeo + Juliet, a hip modern version of Shakespeare’s classic story of star-crossed lovers.

The Luhrmann film epic is said to begin in the mid-1930s and conclude with the 1942-43 Japanese bombing of Darwin and the exodus south, known as the Adelaide River Stakes.

The light-hearted working title has been Project Oklahoma.

But the director Baz Luhrmann has confirmed that his next film, which will star Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, is not another Moulin Rouge.

“It’s not a musical,” he said with a laugh yesterday.

“And it’s not Oklahoma!”

Speaking publicly about the film for the first time, Luhrmann described it as a “classic romance that uses the sweeping landscape of Australia” and runs from the mid-1930s to the bombing of Darwin during World War II.

Filming will start in August at the latest, to beat the wet season in northern Australia, with backing from the Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox.

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AS Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe begin rehearsals for their first movie together, the Australian film’s director, Baz Luhrmann, said he was still missing a key cast member.

Luhrmann yesterday put out a casting call for an indigenous boy, aged 7-10, to join the cast of his untitled Australian epic, set in Darwin in the 1930s.

The director, best known for the musical Moulin Rouge, said Kidman and Crowe, whose characters become involved in a love triangle, will begin rehearsing in Los Angeles in two weeks.

With a rumoured budget of $40million, the movie will be shot in Australia and is set to be one of the most expensive and adventurous local films.

Speaking from the north Queensland town of Bowen, which may double as Darwin, Luhrmann described the film as an epic on the scale of Gone With The Wind, Out Of Africa or Giant.

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Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) is scheduled to begin principal photography in July or August on his Australian-set period epic starring Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe, reports Production Weekly.

The site says rehearsals start in May on the romance that is being compared to Gone With the Wind. It is set around the time of World War II and will be shot in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia on a set created from scratch by Luhrmann.

Luhrmann is collaborating with Collateral screenwriter and fellow Aussie Stuart Beattie on the film, which is expected to be made through 20th Century Fox.

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.

Nicole Kidman has slammed press reports she will marry country music star Keith Urban in Australia next month.

Stories surfaced last week that the celebrity couple had sent out invitations for an 11 March ceremony in Sydney.

However, Kidman’s Australian publicist Wendy Day says, “Everything about that story is nonsense.

“Nicole Kidman is not getting married to Keith Urban at a Catholic church in Sydney on 11 March. I know of no wedding. I know of no wedding date. I know of no wedding plans.”

According to Day, Kidman will be presenting an Academy Award on 5 March and has no immediate plans to return to Australia.

Day adds, “She is starting work on a new film in upstate New York in early April.”

Kidman and Urban have been dating for the past year and made their first official public appearance at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles earlier this month.

Academy Award®-winning actress Nicole Kidman will be a presenter at the 78th Academy Awards ceremony, telecast producer Gil Cates announced today.

Kidman, who has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, took home a Best Actress Oscar in 2002 for portraying Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.” She also received a nomination in 2001 for her leading role in “Moulin Rouge.”

Kidman will be next seen in “The Visiting” and “Fur.” Her other film credits include “Cold Mountain,” “Dogville,” “The Others,” “The Portrait of a Lady,” “To Die For” and “Dead Calm.”

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2005 will be presented on Sunday, March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5 p.m. PST. A one-hour red carpet arrivals show will precede the telecast at 4 p.m.

The Aussie Power Couple™ are rumored no more. After their coming out party at the Grammy’s Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are official. And yes, while their love is still young, Keith is still spoiling Nicole.

Sandra Clark of The Star reports that on a recent trip to Nashville “Keith went out of his way to find one of the best massage therapists in Nashville and surprised Nicole with a two-hour Swedish massage,” a source told the magazine.

After eight months, the country hunk is still giving special surprises to Nic every chance he gets just “to show her how much he adores her,” the source adds.

More Nashville rumors

Tina Sims earlier reported that the TV show Extra cited sources close to Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman and an Australian morning show that is reporting that two people close to the country music star have slipped that the two will tie the knot in Nashville within the next two weeks.

That report hit on February 14. The clock is ticking.

Grammy-winning singer Norah Jones will make her film debut in the first English-language film by acclaimed Hong Kong art-house director Wong Kar-wai, a film industry consultant said.

[b]Wong was originally scheduled to shoot “Lady from Shanghai,” featuring Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman, but has delayed the project until 2007 because they have not found a strong male lead actor, a film industry consultant attending the ongoing Berlin Film Festival told The Associated Press by phone.[/b]

Details of the new movie weren’t immediately available, but the official, who declined to be further identified, said it won’t revolve around the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the U.S. as reported earlier. It also won’t be filmed in New York doubling as New Orleans.

The consultant spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid identifying his relationship with Wong and because the project hasn’t been officially announced. “The only cast member that is confirmed … is Norah Jones,” the consultant said at the weekend.

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Actress Nicole Kidman finally made her love for Country music star Keith Urban public at the Grammy Awards.

The very private couple were seen holding hands at the ceremony during which Urban won an award for best country vocal.

An onlooker told the Daily Star: “He’s obviously besotted with her – he kept gazing at her. They looked so happy, it was lovely to see.

“Nicole has had a bit of a rough time with her love life so it’s great to see her smiling and looking so happy again.”

“When Keith got up to collect his award Nicole looked so proud of her man. She was clapping so hard and couldn’t contain her excitement.”

Kidman and Urban are rumoured to be looking to get married and pregnant…they are probably ‘just good friends’ though.