There's no other way of putting it: Writer-director Baz Luhrmann's "Australia" is epic in every sense of the word. But while the film is a breathtaking trip Down Under, Luhrmann, the genius behind the hit musical "Moulin Rouge," knows that the film isn't a slam dunk by the virtue of its beauty alone.

There's much more to it than that, and he's challenged by trying to boil it down to a couple of words.

"We've seen the film with audiences and we know that there's a connectivity, but selling a film like this -- communicating it -- is not an easy thing for Fox or any other studio to do," Luhrmann said in a recent @ The Movies interview. "People are in for broad comedy, passionate romance, action and drama all in one package. There's no one easy marketing tool that can be taken off the shelf."

But of course, it doesn't hurt when your leading man, Hugh Jackman, is named the "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine a week prior to the film's release.

"I can't believe it's taken this long for People to find that out," Luhrmann quipped.

Shot in Australia and starring Aussies Nicole Kidman and Jackman, the film is set just prior to World War II, as English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) travels to Australia to save her inherited land from a band of cattle barons. Joining forces with a rugged local named Drover (Jackman), Sarah embarks on arduous cattle drive hundreds of miles over rough terrain and through man-made obstacles to bring the massive herd to market.

But getting to the city of Darwin in northern Australia is only half the journey for the pair and Nullah (Brandon Walters) -- a boy shunned because of his white and Aboriginal lineage whom the Sarah and Drover become endeared to. The city is a target of the same Japanese forces that bombed Pearl Harbor, and it threatens to tear each of their lives apart.

While the film spans several genres and boasts a stunning look at the sprawling vistas of Australia, Luhrmann knew that he needed to find the right couple to be enveloped in the surroundings to ensure "Australia" would resonate on a human level.

The director said that he sought to connect with audiences' Western movie sensibilities early on in the film to capitalize on Jackman's striking resemblance to a film icon in his younger years -- during the time when Clint Eastwood was making his name as a high plains drifter.

"It was intentional to make the introduction of Hugh's character to feel a little bit like those Sergio Leone Westerns," Luhrmann explained. "I don't say this lightly -- there are not a lot of actors who is someone you want to be around all the time. But he is. There's a sort of genuine ease that he has with himself that not only is true in the character of Drover but also true in Hugh. Eastwood has that same feeling of being completely at ease with himself. It's been a long time since there's been an iconic movie star who can manifest that on screen."

While "Australia" marked the first time Jackman worked with fellow Aussie Luhrmann, the director had the benefit of teaming previously with Kidman on "Moulin Rouge." Their history effectively gave the director one of his easiest casting decisions ever.

"When you think of the film's demands, there are some sequences that are very funny, some very tragic and some very emotional. And it happens to a character with a lot of style and good looks. Knowing she was capable of all of that, it was not hard to cast Nicole," Luhrmann said. "She's old-fashioned movie star who happens to be a terrific actor. When you put those two qualities together, there's a very short list of actors who can do that."

The only possible issue for Luhrmann was Kidman's statuesque appearance (she's almost 5-foot-11) in relation to a potential leading man. But as things soon worked out, the charismatic, 6-foot-2 Jackman perfectly fit the bill.

"Nicole is a very imposing figure because she's tall," Luhrmann said. "She's quite extraordinary to look at and has an extraordinary electric energy. It's very hard to put an actor next to her and make it feel one-on-one. But Hugh just walks up next to her and is very polite, very lovely and makes it a warm relationship. It's completely one-on-one."

"Australia" is a deeply personal film for the 46-year-old Luhrmann in that he wanted it to be something for his children to find connectivity to their homeland. But he said that the film is also close to his heart because it helps him bring to the "scar on his country" known as "The Stolen Generation," were indigenous Aborigine children were removed from families by government agencies and church missions and placed in white foster care. (In the context of "Australia," Nullah is at danger of being placed in a mission for being a child of mixed race.)

"I had the ability and power to take a moral issue like that and put it on a big stage. I could have made a small film about it, but instead, wanted to incorporate it in a big entertainment so it wouldn't be swept under the carpet," Luhrmann said. "One of the wonderful things that happened just at the end of the making of the film was that the Australian government came out and apologized on behalf of all Australians to the Stolen Generation. That put a lot of wrong things right. It was a good, spiritual thing to happen."