Airtimes:  
Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Singapore and Taipei
Wednesday, Dec 30 at 2130
Thursday, Dec 31 at 1230
Saturday, Jan 2 at 2000
Sunday, Jan 3 at 0430 & 1730
Monday, Jan 4 at 0730 
Bangkok and Jakarta

Wednesday, Dec 30 at 2030
Thursday, Dec 31 at 1130
Saturday, Jan 2 at 1900
Sunday, Jan 3 at 0330 & 1630
Monday, Jan 4 at 0630

Treating his audience to eccentric lighting, a lavish production style and frenetic pace, Australian movie director Baz Luhrmann's highly visual body of work is never short on wow factor. This week TALK ASIA is invited into Luhrmann's Sydney home as Anna Coren hears how a country boy with a 9mm camera made it onto the global stage with blockbusters including "Moulin Rouge" and "Australia".

As he explains, his rural upbringing has defined how he brings stories to life on the big screen: "I clearly am a fabulist...I think as a little kid in the middle of nowhere in a tiny country town, I had no problem taking the truth but imaging the big story, the big myth, the big adventure."

Luhrmann started out as an actor before discovering that his destiny lay behind the camera. His directorial debut came with "Strictly Ballroom" in 1992, a movie that initially flopped without a distributor: "What happened is the guy saw the movie, ran from the cinema, said it's the worst film he has ever seen...wonderful Pat Thompson...she'll never work again, you've destroyed her career, and we are withdrawing the one cinema you've got."

Fortunately, someone at the Cannes Film Festival recognized his maverick talent and arranged a screening for Luhrmann's first full-length feature film. The director walked away with an "Award of the Youth" prize and a sizable $80 million box office revenue worldwide. "My life has been kind of like a holiday that I never come home from."

But it was "Moulin Rouge" that would propel the director onto the Hollywood A-list. The romantic musical set in the 19th century Paris proves to be both a critical and a commercial success, resulting in more than $177 million at the worldwide box office. It also garnered eight Oscar nominations, including the first musical nomination for Best Picture in decades.

In the wake of such a success, 20th Century Fox then gave Luhrmann a huge vote of confidence through a massive $130 million budget to produce the epic "Australia". The director talks about the great expectation with the movie even before filming began: "I remember seeing one of my favourite magazines, Conde Nast Traveler. There was a picture...big double page spread saying ‘Baz Luhrmann's next masterpiece', and I went ‘we've got lots of trouble here. The movie hadn't been made'."

"Australia" was well received commercially despite mixed reviews and the director further developed his close relationship with Nicole Kidman: "Every time we come together, there's such an intense project. There's usually some remarkable, extraordinary person or thing going on in our lives. It's well-documented in Moulin Rouge - I lost my father day one; she broke up with her then husband at the end of the movie. I really like her...We are family friends."

As he gives Coren a tour of his remarkable Sydney home, Luhrmann tells her that his four full-length movies are his ‘children' and as such he refuses to name his favourite: "You don't relate to your children like that...I love both my children in completely different ways." But he does reveal his favourite scenes: "It'll always come back to the key relationship moments. When you start seeing the lead players...when you see play between them, that's everything in the movie."

Baz Luhrmann's interview with TALK ASIA will be available online at www.cnn.com/talkasia after the first airing.

For more information, please visit www.CNNPressroomAsia.com.

- END -