Baz Luhrmann reinvented his film Australia using epic 2.1 million feet of footage

“What I liken it to is when a musician makes a song, and you go to a concert and they do a different treatment,” he says. “They do the rock ’n roll version of, say, a dance track.

“It doesn’t mean it’s a different tune or a different song. It’s just a different way of telling it.”

While Luhrmann will decide on a next project in the new year – the options include a theatre show in London and a documentary using never-previously-seen footage of Elvis Presley performing – he might make a different version of the film Elvis for streaming in future.

“I wouldn’t do it to Moulin Rouge or Romeo + Juliet but I’ve been thinking that Elvis would really suit this,” he says. “If I looked at it as a long-play episodic, I’d even radically look at the way I tell the story.”

While Faraway Downs did not involve any new filming, Kidman and Jackman revoiced poor quality dialogue from the Australia set, with the odd word changed. Luhrmann describes it as a joy working with Indigenous musicians Budjerah and Electric Fields on the new soundtrack.

Luhrmann decided on a different – and darker – ending for the miniseries.

“I felt that in the length of the movie, maybe it was just one tragic turn too many,” he says of the ending of Australia. “I feel this ending speaks to the larger theme.”

Having dramatised a Stolen Generations story, Luhrmann is clearly disappointed by the no vote in the Voice to parliament referendum.

“My position was to support what the majority of First Nations people wanted,” he says. “And I think it was pretty clear that that majority of First Nations people wanted a voice.

“I personally feel it was a missed opportunity for progress. [And] I don’t think we understand the level to which, even if you’re aware that you’re subjected to misinformation and manipulation by the net, just what can be pushed out there. It’s really just inaccurate information.”

After launching Faraway Downs in Sydney, London, Tokyo and New York, Luhrmann headed to Saudi Arabia to be jury president at the Red Sea International Film Festival this week.

He consulted with other filmmakers before deciding it was more important to attend, given that it focussed on films rather than glamorous celebrations, than have the festival cancelled.

“I just think that in a world where politics and certain military solutions are failing us, more than ever, the voices of storytellers need to be heard,” he says. “And a lot of the storytelling is coming not just from the Arab world but from Africa and Asia.

“So I just thought this is not really the right moment to run for the hills.”