Baz Luhrmann


Baz Luhrmann is an Australian director, writer, and producer with projects spanning film, television, opera, theatre, music, and recording industries. He is regarded by many as a contemporary example of an auteur for his style and deep involvement in the writing, directing, design, and musical components of all his work. He is the most commercially successful Australian director, with four of his films in the top ten highest worldwide grossing Australian films of all time.
On the screen he is best known for his "Red Curtain Trilogy," comprising his romantic comedy film Strictly Ballroom, the romantic tragedy William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge!. Following the trilogy, projects included Australia, The Great Gatsby, and his television period drama The Get Down for Netflix. Additional projects include stage productions of Giacomo Puccini's La bohème for both the Australian Opera and Broadway and Strictly Ballroom the Musical.
Luhrmann is equally known for his Grammy-nominated soundtracks for Moulin Rouge! and, as well as his record label House of Iona, a co-venture with RCA Records. Serving as producer on all of his musical soundtracks, he also holds writing credits on many of the individual tracks. His album Something For Everybody features music from many of his films and also includes his hit "Everybody's Free ".
Luhrmann's influence has extended outside the traditional realm of media and entertainment. Deeply involved in the fashion and art worlds, Luhrmann's No. 5 the Film for Chanel not only holds a Guinness World Record for the highest budget for an advertising commercial ever produced, but pioneered the now commonplace genre of fashion film and branded content. Luhrmann works closely with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Anna Wintour Costume Center, having chaired the annual Met Gala as well as producing a short film for the museum, celebrating Miuccia Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli. More recently he and his wife Catherine Martin have adapted their style for projects in events, retail, architecture and design with Barneys New York and developer and hotelier Alan Faena.

Personal life

Luhrmann was born in Sydney. His mother, Barbara Carmel, was a ballroom dance teacher and dress shop owner, and his father, Leonard Luhrmann, ran a petrol station and a movie theatre. He was raised in Herons Creek, a tiny rural settlement in northern New South Wales. He attended St Joseph's Hastings Regional School, Port Macquarie ; St Paul's Catholic College, performing in the school's version of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, and Narrabeen Sports High School, where he met future collaborator Craig Pearce.
Luhrmann received the nickname "Baz" from his father, given to him because of his afro hair style, the name coming from the English Basil Brush. While still in high school, Luhrmann changed his name by deed poll to Bazmark, joining his nickname and birth name together. In 1980 Luhrmann graduated high school and in the same year was cast opposite Judy Davis in the Australian film Winter of Our Dreams. In 1982 using the money he had earned from film and television experience he funded his own theatre company, The Bond Theatre Company, with future friends and collaborators Nelly Hooper and Gabrielle Mason. The company performed at the Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach. At the same time he conceived and appeared in a controversial television documentary, Kids of the Cross, where Luhrmann, embedded as a character, lived with a group of street kids. In 1983, he began an acting course at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. He graduated in 1985 alongside Sonia Todd, Catherine McClements and Justin Monjo. On 26 January 1997, he married Catherine Martin, a production designer; the couple have two children.
Luhrmann supports the Melbourne Demons in the Australian Football League.

Films

After theatrical successes, including the original stage version of Strictly Ballroom, Luhrmann moved into film and has directed five so far:
The modern film interpretation Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, defeated Titanic at the BAFTAs for best direction, music and screenplay. The film was celebrated at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was recognised with the Gold Bear award for direction and Silver Bear for DiCaprio's performance. Luhrmann also produced both volumes of the soundtrack album, which went triple-platinum.
Luhrmann's Oscar-winning musical Moulin Rouge!, set in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris at the dawn of the 20th century, told the story of a young English poet/writer, Christian who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret actress and courtesan Satine. The film was praised by its adherents, including famed musical directors Robert Wise and Stanley Donen, as having re-invented the modern musical, blending decades of popular music in remixes and mash-ups. The movie was named one of the AFI's top ten films of 2001 and in 2010 was chosen as the top film of the 2000s decade in a poll of 150,000 respondents in the United Kingdom. At the 59th Annual Golden Globes, Moulin Rouge! took home the awards for Best Motion Picture, Best Actress, and Best Original Score. The film also gave birth to a successful soundtrack album, produced by Luhrmann, which sold more than seven million copies and went double-platinum, led by the Grammy-winning number one hit single "Lady Marmalade".
Luhrmann's 2008 historical epic Australia featured some of the country's most celebrated actors, including Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, and David Gulpilil. Situated between the two World Wars, the film blended a nostalgic romance with major events from Australian history, including the Bombing of Darwin, and the true story of the Stolen Generations, wherein thousands of mixed-race Aboriginal children were stolen from their families by the state and forcibly integrated into white society. The movie's racial politics were controversial for their time, and notably, its production coincided with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's 2008 Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples. Marcia Langton, professor of Australian indigenous studies at Melbourne University publicly supported the film, saying "Luhrmann depicts with satirical sharpness the racial caste system of that time... In his imagined cinema of the 1940s, the spatial and social shape of racism is reconstructed with such exact detail, I felt I had been transported back to my own childhood." While achieving modest box office success in the United States, the film was very successful in Europe, maintaining the #1 slot at the box office for many weeks in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Scandinavian countries. It is the second-highest grossing Australian film of all time, next to Crocodile Dundee and ahead of Happy Feet.
In 2013, Luhrmann adapted F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, shot in 3D, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan, Australian newcomer Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker, and legendary Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Wolfsheim. For the film, Luhrmann and costume/production designer Catherine Martin collaborated with Prada, Brooks Brothers, and Tiffany & Co to create period-inspired dresses, suits, and jewelry based on their own archives and true to the book's own references to luxury brands. The film grossed over $353 million worldwide, making it the director's highest-grossing movie to date. Critic Richard Roeper described the adaptation as "the best attempt yet to capture the essence of the novel” while Fitzgerald's granddaughter praised the movie, saying "Scott would have been proud." The following year, at the 86th Academy Awards, the film won in both of its nominated categories: Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. The soundtrack, produced by Luhrmann, Anton Monsted, and Jay-Z, sought to blend the music of the Jazz Age with contemporary hip-hop as two historical analogues. Featured artists included Beyoncé, Jack White, Lana Del Rey, Sia, will.i.am, The xx, and Florence and the Machine; the soundtrack also included score from the film's composer and Luhrmann's repeat collaborator Craig Armstrong. The album's sales exceeded expectations, marking the biggest digital sales week for a soundtrack in Billboard history, and peaking at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart.
Luhrmann is currently in pre-production for a film about Elvis Presley's relationship with Colonel Tom Parker, set to start filming in February 2020 and due to be released in October 2021. In March 2018, it was announced that Tom Hanks would play Parker and later in July, news broke that Austin Butler had been cast as the famed singer after a series of screen tests, as well as music and performance workshops.

Television

In 2016, Luhrmann collaborated with award-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis on the Netflix series The Get Down about the birth of hip-hop in the 1970s. For the series, Luhrmann brought on Nas, Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow and DJ Kool Herc as producers, to help tell the story of the rise of hip hop, punk, and disco during shifting cultural and political transformation through his unique brand of magical realism. The series featured two parts, praised for its vibrant music, fresh cast and authenticity, due to the involvement of many of the era's key historical figures in central roles to the show's development. Part One was certified fresh by Rotten Tomatoes, with a score of 77%, while Part Two of the series holds a critic score of 86%.

Acting and director credits

Director credits

Creator

Screen actor

Stage actor

Other work

Luhrmann has cast certain actors in more than one of his films:
Strictly BallroomRomeo + JulietMoulin Rouge!AustraliaThe Great Gatsby
Veronica Beattie
Max Cullen
Leonardo DiCaprio
Arthur Dignam
Steven Grace
Nigel Harbach
Michelle Hopper
Bill Hunter
Nicole Kidman
Jacek Koman
John Leguizamo
Tara Morice
Lara Mulcahy
Barry Otto
John Sheerin
Jack Thompson
Kerry Walker
David Wenham
Peter Whitford
Matthew Whittet

Influences

Luhrmann has cited Italian grand opera as a major influence on his work and has also given a nod to other theatrical styles, such as Bollywood films, as having influenced his style. Luhrmann was a ballroom dancer as a child and his mother taught ballroom dancing which was an inspiration for Strictly Ballroom. Luhrmann's favourite films are Star 80, 8½, War and Peace, Medium Cool and Fitzcarraldo.

Awards and honours

AACTA Awards

Luhrmann has received four awards from nine Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards nominations.
YearNominee/workAwardResultRef.
1992Strictly BallroomBest Director
1992Strictly BallroomBest Screenplay, Original or Adapted
1997Romeo + JulietBest Foreign Film
2001Moulin Rouge!Best Direction
2001Moulin Rouge!Best Film
2009AustraliaBest Original Score
2009AustraliaNews Limited Readers' Choice Award
2014The Great GatsbyBest Direction
2014The Great GatsbyBest Film

Academy Awards

Moulin Rouge! was nominated for Best Picture at the 74th Academy Awards. Luhrmann was not nominated for Best Director, prompting host Whoopi Goldberg to remark, "I guess just directed itself."
YearNominee/workAwardResultRef.
2002Moulin Rouge!Best Picture

British Academy Film Awards

Luhrmann has received two awards from seven British Academy Film Award nominations.
YearNominee/workAwardResultRef.
1993Strictly BallroomBest Screenplay, Adapted
1993Strictly BallroomBest Film
1998Romeo + JulietBest Screenplay, Adapted
1998Romeo + JulietDavid Lean Award for Direction
2002Moulin Rouge!Best Screenplay
2002Moulin Rouge!David Lean Award for Direction
2002Moulin Rouge!Best Film

Golden Globe Awards

Luhrmann has been nominated three times for Golden Globe Awards, winning in 2002 for Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
YearNominee/workAwardResultRef.
1994Strictly BallroomBest Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
2002Moulin Rouge!Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
2002Moulin Rouge!Best Director, Motion Picture

Grammy Awards

Luhrmann has been specifically been nominated three times for Grammy Awards, with additional accolades for songs on the albums he has produced for his films, including wins for Lady Marmalade at 2002's Grammy's, as well as nominations for Young and Beautiful for the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media the 2014 Grammy's.
YearNominee/workAwardResultRef.
2002Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann's FilmBest Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media
2014Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media
2020Moulin Rouge! The Musical Original Broadway Cast RecordingBest Musical Theater Album

Tony Awards

Luhrmann has specifically been nominated for two Tony Awards, and his production of La Boheme also won awards for Best Scenic Design and Best Lighting Design at the 57th Tony Awards.
YearNominee/workAwardResultRef.
2003La bohèmeBest Direction in a Musical
2003La bohèmeBest Revival of a Musical

Additional awards