Interview with Baz Luhrmann about the movie "Far Ranch": Why he made the movie "Australia" longer.

Just because it is, doesn't mean it has to be,' declare both aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) and Drover (Hugh Jackman) of "Australia," calling for Baz Luhrmann's heroic historical epic from 2008 to fight for racial and social progress.

Now, however, that's also true of the movie itself, which the acclaimed director of Moulin Rouge and Elvis has unveiled in a grander form as "Ferraway Downs," a six-episode sequel that includes about an hour of new material with a surprise ending.

Premieres Nov. 26 on Hulu.

This new version, based on existing footage and embellished with original copyrighted music and animation, turns a sweeping romantic melodrama''Luhrmann's epic into a richer tale of backwoods love, business struggles and pain about the legacy of the lost generations of his home country, when mixed Aboriginal children were weaned from their families and turned into members of white Christian society.

Although the 165-minute "Australia" was never considered too concise, the extended version of "Ferryway Downs" (running about 225 minutes) benefited from its less rushed episodic pace. At the expense of additional time devoted to plot development, the emphasis is placed on the main characters Lady Sarah and Drover.

The pair are a couple from different worlds who meet due to circumstance to save the Ferryway Downs estate from predatory cattle baron King Carney (Brian Brown) and his''s traitorous assistant Fletcher (David Wenham), as well as wooing a young Aboriginal boy, Nullah (Brandon Walters), who is suspected of murdering Lady Sarah's husband by his shamanic grandfather King George (David Gulpil) .

This epic tale is rich with a pandemonium of cattle attacks, fires and tornadoes (oh my!), highlighted by references to "The Wizard of Oz" and enlivened by Luhrmann's style. What's more, its new ending gives it a bitterness that rings true to its portrait of unstable reconciliation and unlikely independence.

Although the movie doesn't reincarnate its source material, "Ferryway Downs" will certainly appeal to fans of the Australian master, and this is one where, long before this "movie in' debuted'Chapters,' we talked to Luhrmann about returning to Australia, his attitude toward director's cut versions of movies and his thoughts on Sofia Coppola's "Priscilla".

"Australia" drew mixed reviews when it came out in 2008, but no one thought the movie should be longer. Why then add an extra hour and make "Faraway Downs"?

All my films, even "Moulin Rouge!" cross some line when I realize they work, but I never consider them perfect. They're like children, they grow up and go off to school, they're taken away from you. Of course, with 'Australia' it was very difficult. I think what I really wanted to find the answer to was that 'Faraway Downs' is not the director's version of 'Australia'.'' 'Faraway Downs' has such a significant change of subject matter in it, and I created new music with these exciting new young pop artists and added graphics by young Aboriginal graphic artists. I really looked at the underlying theme and enriched it - it's like taking something like a melodrama like 'Gone With the Wind' and flipping it around and telling it from the perspective of a wild child.