Baz Luhrmann's 2008 film Australia gets reimagined in FX's Faraway Downs, Variety reported.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoiler for the 2008 movie, Australia and the Hulu series Faraway Downs.

Luhrmann's 165-minute Australia couldn't cover every ground set in the sprawling country (also a continent) story-wise. That's why 15 years later, Hulu now had the six-episode miniseries.

There's a bit of a change as well. However, all other elements are still in place. The three main characters are all still there. The show also uses footage from the film.

Australia vs. Faraway Downs

The series' title, Faraway Downs, refers to the Australian cattle station belonging to Lady Sarah Ashley's (Nicole Kidman) philandering husband. When he is murdered, Lady Ashley must choose between keeping the station and selling it to a businessman who wants to create a cattle monopoly.

In Australia, she meets The Drover (Hugh Jackman), a rancher who moves animals over long distances, and Nullah (Brandon Walters), a mixed-race Aboriginal boy who ends up at the cattle station. Circumstances force the three to live together, but end up forming a family.

Set in the backdrop of the 1942 Japanese attack on Darwin, Lady Ashley has to contend with letting Nullah go with his grandfather to undergo the Aboriginal rite of passage called walkabout.

Faraway Downs in essentially an extended cut of the movie Australia. Luhrmann came up with the idea when he had to call a halt to the production of Elvis at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He ended up going through the reported 2.5 million feet of film that he shot for Australia. Luhrmann calls the series “an experiment” and if it proves to be successful, with “far-reaching” implications.

The writer/director added 40 minutes of unreleased footage to Faraway Downs. Luhrmann said that transitioning from movie to series works due to the film's episodic nature. Since the film is already broken up into parts, it means an almost seamless TV storytelling. Compared to a much limited run-time in movies, the series can include scenes that were cut for brevity.

No new footage was shot for the series, but Kidman and Jackman did end up recording audio for the unreleased scenes. As for the unreleased scenes, the director didn't think of them as padding.

“They are different way of telling the story,” he insisted.

As several of Australia's prominent Aboriginal characters had passed since the movie's release 15 years ago, the series producers consulted the indigenous community. The series has disclaimers that inform the audience that “images, voices and artwork of deceased person” were used.

The movie and the series have different endings. In Australia, played out sweetly for the main characters. However, in Faraway Downs, Luhrmann kills off a key character.

Hulu is streaming all six episodes of Faraway Downs.