Local hero
Baz Luhrmann is creating a $47.5 million advertising campaign for Tourism Australia that will dovetail with the release of his film “Australia” in November. The campaign will be the centerpiece of the government agency’s global marketing efforts in the next nine months but separate from initiatives that TA and Fox are working on around the film’s release.
Locarno’s ‘Story’
Francois Rotger’s “Story of Jen,” a France-Canada production, has been added to the main competition at the 61st Locarno Film Festival. The world premiere — about a 16-year-old girl, her widowed mother and the mother’s new boyfriend — pushes the number of productions challenging for Locarno’s Golden Leopard to 18.
Indies rock
Independent producers claimed three-quarters of the BBC commissions they were allowed to compete for in the April 2007- April 2008 period, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers report. The independent review found that BBC’s year-old system — which leaves 25% of commissions to an open competition — supports diversity but is expected to raise questions about the quality of its in-house production.
Lock and key
Vittorio Cecchi Gori is headed home from the hospital. The Italian producer, arrested two months ago on charges of insolvency, had been in prison until July 9, when he was released and hospitalized for undisclosed health problems.
