Tim Winton's Dirt Music

Tim Winton's wonderful book, Dirt Music, is in the works as a film. "In pre-production", they say in the biz. Evidently, Rachel Weisz is playing Georgie Jutland, but there's a lack of clarity about the part of Luther Fox. First, Heath Ledger was announced. Even before his death, Colin Farrell was announced, but Farrell says now "that project didn't work out for me". According to imDb, Russell Crowe is "rumored", but that site still lists Farrell for the part of Fox. Confusion!

I've no doubt that the film will find its stars. What interests me more is when will shooting begin and will shooting take place on the Western Australian coast where the book is set? I have nightmares that shooting will be moved to the east coast because Western Australian shoots present expenses and inconveniences that shoots in the Sydney or Melbourne do not.

If the film is not set in Western Australia, I don't see how its story can be told. It's not only a love story between two people; it's a story about love of place as well. And that place is the red dirt and the blue Indian Ocean and the cloudless skies of the west coast of Australia.