Baz Luhrmann has revealed that he is wanting to make a “jazz age” version of Charli XCX’s Wuthering Heights soundtrack.
The Australian filmmaker, who is behind the 2022 Elvis biopic, the new Elvis EPiC concert film, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge and more, shared the vision with Wallpaper – where he spoke about designing a new carriage for Belmond’s British Pullman train.
He is embarking on the project with Catherine Martin – his wife and creative partner – and shared that the idea arose from his love of “slow travel”.
“Trains in particular have a way of putting you in a dream-like state where you forget about the realities around you in the world,” he said, adding that the carriage he and Martin were designing will be called “Celia”.
It will be set within an original 1932 Pullman carriage, accommodating 12 guests, and inspired by a theatre set for A Midsummer Night’s Dream – heavily decorated with flora and fauna, and also featuring a cocktail bar, a lounge, an entertainment area and more.
Like many of his films, the design is a nod to a bygone era, and would look to capture the same elegance and extravagance as seen on his films including The Great Gatsby.
When asked about what music he had in mind for the carriage, Luhrmann said that he was wanting to take a similar approach to what he did in the 2013 film with Leonardo DiCaprio – where he got Bryan Ferry to reimagine some famous pop tracks.
“What I would do is probably something like what I did with Bryan Ferry on Gatsby, where I got Bryan, with his wonderful jazz orchestra, to cover ‘Crazy in Love’ and do some modern cuts,” the director said, sharing one recent release he had his eye on.
“So I’d take the soundtrack to Wuthering Heights and do a Jazz Age version of it,” he said, referring to the album Charli XCX wrote for the 2026 film with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. “You’d have to ask Charli if that was OK, but I think it’d be cool,” he added.
As for the vision he thinks the soundtrack would help make, the director said: “In a world that is so bereft of civility, kindness, warmth, magic, love and beauty, I hope [visitors] leave feeling like they have got a little bit of that – alongside amazing food, a lot of laughs and a few cups of whatever it is that they drink.
“I really want them to stumble back out in London, shimmy off into the night and feel like they haven’t been away for a day, but that they’ve been away for a month.”
Luhrmann and Martin’s Pullman carriage is set to launch in the summer, and more details about it will be made available soon.
Charli XCX’s Wuthering Heights soundtrack was given a four-star review from NME last month and described as “delicious gothic pop”.
“In her Substack post, XCX questioned whether ‘Wuthering Heights’ is ‘a Charli XCX album’. If it were her first official record after ‘Brat’, the response could be different – this soundtrack doesn’t feel like it will create another cultural phenomenon,” it read. “Perhaps, though, that’s what the star needs to find music inspiring again – a way to lift the pressure and expectations slightly. In the meantime, it delivers a solid slab of new music from her – the perfect soundtrack for a winter of yearning and discontent.”
As well as working on the Wuthering Heights soundtrack, the ‘360’ singer has also penned music for the upcoming A24 film Mother Mary starring Anne Hathaway, starred in her own mockumentary The Moment, taken on a role in new romance Erupcja, and locked in a role in fantasy 100 Nights Of Hero.
She also played a comedic version of herself in the TV show Overcompensating, and was recently cast alongside Supergirl star Milly Alcock in a new horror film directed by Takasi Miike.
As for Luhrmann, the director recently revealed that he is working on a stage musical centred around the life and career of Elvis Presley – following on from the 2022 biopic and EPiC concert film.
He is also underway with working on a new movie called Jehanne d’Arc, which stars Isla Johnston and is expected to arrive in cinemas in 2027.
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