Baz, Fox Can't Even Give 'Australia' Away

It has not been a dream scenario for director Baz Luhrmann: His new epic, Australia was a huge financial burden for 20th Century Fox, adding up to $160 million in budget spending, according to some reports. Then it was barely finished on time, and it showed up in theaters both dead on arrival commercially and lambasted critically. To date, the film has only made $63 million worldwide. Could one of the reasons for the slow box office be illegal downloading? No, Luhrmann can't even blame the pirates in this case. An article in The Sydney Morning Herald reveals that the film is barely getting any action on Bit Torrent, a combination of the poor quality of the illegally recorded version of the film, Australia's excruciating length, and the poor notices. "The number of 'seeds' - people who have downloaded the full film and are sharing it - is below 10 for most copies of the film but one boasts 400 seeds," observes the paper. At one point, Luhrmann's film was thought to be a potential player at the end of the year, both commercially and for awards. But now all the director and the studio can do is lick their wounds, hope for a bountiful DVD release, which also seems unlikely, and move on.