So Australia isn’t really tanking, but it’s not a hit either. In the first three weeks of it’s release, Australia has made $39 million in the American box office, about on par with Moulin Rouge. The difference is that Moulin Rouge was a lot cheaper to make than Australia’s bloated $130 million production cost. The other difference is that Nicole Kidman’s face moved in Moulin Rouge, but now I’m just being nit-picky.

So Baz Luhrmann decided to step up and defend Australia, and talk about his next film, a new adaptation of The Great Gatsby. And yes, there’s already been talk that Baz is going to do what he (and many other directors) do: cast Nicole Kidman in yet another wildly age-inappropriate role. The rumor is Nicole Kidman as that archetypal American literary character, Daisy Buchanan. But Baz isn’t confirming anything beyond a rather severe martyr complex.

In one of his first interviews since the movie opened, he spoke out against Australia’s critics and those he feels call him the “black hole of cinema.” He also said he will move quickly on his next project, an adaptation of The Great Gatsby, which he described as a perfect parable for economic disaster.

“A lot of reviewers like Australia. And we’re making people cry; I know because they write to us,” he told the Hollywood Reporter during an interview at the Four Seasons Hotel. “But there are those that don’t get it. A lot of the film scientists don’t get it. And it’s not just that that they don’t get it, but they hate it and they hate me, and they think I’m the black hole of cinema. They say, ‘He shouldn’t have made it, and he should die.’”

The movie’s detractors, he said, were used to movies that were neatly defined.

“This is not (simply) a romantic comedy for 40-year-old women or action movies for 17-year-old boys, and that’s not OK with some people. It’s not OK for people to come eat at the same table of cinema. But you look at movies like ‘Gone With the Wind’ and Old Hollywood classics, and they don’t fit in any box.

“Corny Hollywood movies from the ’40s freak out (the film scientists),” he added.

Luhrmann struck a tone that was as unyielding as many of the creative choices in his movies, but was also occasionally conciliatory. “I’m not whining, because when you do what I do, you expect to be covered in mud. But there seems to be a lot of misinformation.”

[From Reuters]

Really, Baz? Because it seems like you are, in fact, whining. And I’m not sure where he gets off even mentioning Gone With the Wind in the same breath as Australia. I know I’m coming across as harsh, so let me mention that I actually loved Baz’s Romeo + Juliet, and I liked Moulin Rouge. But Baz Luhrmann has some ego problems – and he’s not even through! He has some preaching to do about The Great Gatsby and the American recession.

Luhrmann sees the pre-Depression story as a wake-up call as the economy crashes and another gilded age, as he sees it, comes to an end. “If you wanted to show a mirror to people that says, ‘You’ve been drunk on money,’ they’re not going to want to see it. But if you reflected that mirror on another time they’d be willing to.”

Luhrmann appeared as particularly interested in worsening economic times and attitudes — noting a kind of glib wealth that came with “the Wall Street trader who has a house in the Hamptons as big as an airport” — and he went on to say that the people needed to take the message of hope from Australia.

He said that he wants to move quickly on the “Gatsby” project because of that timeliness. “I’m going to move faster than I have before. I’d be surprised if it’s another seven years,” he said, referring to the period between Moulin Rouge and Australia.

The project also might not be with Fox. The director said he’s “talking to everyone, and they’re all interested” — and paused a full 10 seconds when asked if his experience with Fox was a satisfactory one, before offering a noncommittal answer.

[From Reuters]

So… it’s going to take seven years to make a film about the 1920s that will reflect the current economic condition? Close your eyes and think about what Nicole Kidman will look like in seven years… about the same, right? So will Kidman be cast? Does Baz come across as badly as I find him? Is the subtext of Australia’s financial failure that Baz will never direct again?

Photos are of Luhrman with Hugh Jackman on 12/12/08 and with Jackman and Nicole Kidman on 12/2/08. Credit: WENN