late 1977, when, during his first visit to Australia, it struck him that his surroundings would be the perfect setting for a science fiction film. In addition to fleshing out the complex plot, preproduction also involved extensive still photography. It was not until Wenders found commercial success with Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire, however, that he was able to secure funding for the project. With a budget of around $22 million ($3.7 million of which came from he Australian Film Finance Corporation), which was more than he had spent on all of his previous films combined, Wenders set off on an ambitious production. Principal photography lasted 22 weeks and spanned 11 countries. Wenders, who had a long-standing fascination with the Australian Outback, shot a substantial amount of the film in and around Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia. The imagery in the dream sequences were achieved with early high-definition video. Wenders and technicians at NHK (the only facility which could play back HD video at the time) worked for six weeks on these sequences, intentionally distorting the imagery to create strange visual effects. They often recorded a fast-forwarded version of the image, then played it back at normal speed. Graeme Revell composed the theme and other music for the film. For additional music, Wenders commissioned original songs from a number of his favorite recording artists, asking them to anticipate the kind of music they would be making a decade later, when the film was set. His desire to use all of the pieces he received contributed to his decision to make the film as long as it turned out to be. Reception The truncated version of Until the End of the World that received a theatrical release was poorly received, being both a critical and commercial failure. In the United States, the film was released by Warner Bros. in December 1991 on 4 screens. The total U.S. box office gross was just under $830,000. In January 1992, reviewing the theatrical version of the film, Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of 4, describing it as lacking the "narrative urgency" required to sustain interest in the story, and wrote that it "plays like a film that was photographed before it was written, and edited before it was completed". He went on to say that a documentary about the globe-trekking production would likely have been more interesting than the film