- Visionary filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and his Oscar-winning costume and production designer wife Catherine Martin have designed a new train carriage for luxury travel operator Belmond.
- Dubbed ‘Celia‘, the new carriage embodies Luhrmann’s uniquely flamboyant design language, rich with vivid colour palettes and a Great Gatsby-inspired lounge.
- Celia will be set within an original 1932 carriage on the British Pullman, a Belmond Train, and caters to a maximum of 12 guests.
- The announcement of the new Celia carriage comes just two years after Belmond tapped fellow director Wes Anderson for its ‘Cygnus’ carriage.
- Celia will start to welcome passengers in the summer, with pricing to start from £15,000.
Some signatures are undeniable. Like the violent splatters of Jackson Pollock’s ‘Convergence’ or Rembrandt’s unique mastery of light, certain artists announce themselves instantly, without explanation. Visionary filmmaker Baz Luhrmann is one of them.
Through bold colour, dynamic camera movement and an anachronistic use of music, Luhrmann’s body of work carries a clear visual signature. Together with his Oscar-winning costume and production designer wife Catherine Martin, Luhrmann has created a dazzling on-screen universe that is is as idiosyncratic as it is stunning. Now, fans are able to step into the visionary filmmaker’s unique Gatsby-inspired world for real. Luhrmann and Martin have designed an extraordinary new dining and events carriage onboard the storied British Pullman train.
Celia – The British Pullman Carriage by Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin
Set to launch in summer 2026, Celia is the latest carriage upgrade to the iconic British Pullman rail journey. The luxury vintage train offers day trips and weekend breaks across Britain, with departures from London Victoria. Renowned for its Art Deco design, fine dining menu and restored 1920s–1950s carriages, the British Pullman is among the most prestigious rail journeys in the UK.
The new Celia luxury coach is an original 1932 Pullman carriage, which Luhrmann and Martin have lovingly redesigned with a more contemporary take on modern sophistication. Celia features a personal cocktail bar, lounge, dining and entertainment area, offering up to 12 guests an intimate and cinematic way to travel across the UK.
This isn’t just a celebrity revamp, however. In true Luhrmann style, Celia is the physical manifestation of a modern muse, built on a burgeoning, beautiful backstory that ties old-world charm with new-age philosophy. As the filmmaker explained, Celia is a fictional West End leading lady who was gifted the Pullman car after a knockout performance as Titania, Queen of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“We wanted a story that allowed us to push creativity, luxury and uniqueness as far as they could go,“ Luhrmann explained. “Our narrative echoes the dynamic of Charles Foster Kane and Susan Alexander – of Citizen Kane – itself inspired by William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies.“
“In our story, our American industrialist ‘John’, not unlike Hearst, has a beautiful private dining carriage crafted for his lover Celia and her glamorous friends,“ he continued. “John becomes a metaphorical linchpin, marrying the pinnacle of rail innovation of the era – the Pullman cars – with the romance and exacting artistry of English craftsmanship. You feel this in the delicate inlays, the carved panelling, the polished fittings.“
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Bringing a fictional muse to life in the form of a railcar might sound like an ambitious project, but for Luhrmann and Martin, it’s a natural fit. Costume and production designer Martin was the driving force behind the interiors, conceiving a remarkable space that ties thick velvet and floral motifs together with a warm wood tone and rich colour palette that feels every bit a West End dream. Every element, from the bespoke interiors by Bill Cleyndert to the A Dunn & Son marquetry, adds to the profoundly British undertones.
“Once we had Baz’s character of Celia, the interior design of the carriage became a space encoded with her life story, a world carefully constructed so that the passenger might step inside it and be transported into her universe,“ Martin said.
While images of the interiors are yet to be released, Belmond did share a series of artist depictions that speak directly to Luhrmann and Martin’s vision. What’s more, it reveals a multi-functional space that offers a little something for every kind of traveller. A reception carriage by day, Celia can be turned into a refined venue by evening, designed specifically for exclusive lunches, sparkling toasts, unique birthdays and milestone moments. Here, Luhrmann explained, guests can enjoy drinks and food in an enchanting world inspired by a Shakespeare classic.
“Shakespeare is so deeply woven into the British identity and cultural psyche that the intoxicating, effervescent, dream-soaked world of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ became the perfect setting for our characters,“ he said. “It’s been a rich expression of British imagination, comedy and mischief, much like the spirited adventures Celia and her companions find themselves swept up in aboard the carriage.‘
Belmond Rail and Slow Travel
For Belmond, the LVMH-owned luxury travel company, cinematic slow travel journeys are becoming an important storytelling component. In 2021, the company tapped American filmmaker Wes Anderson for a project that saw him design the Cygnus carriage; a coach that embodied his own uniquely symmetrical, hyper-colour approach.
This time around, the carriage is smaller and more intimate, but as Martin explains, that merely adds to the onboard philosophy. With Celia, you can eat, drink and relax at your own pace as the locomotive ventures past the iconic town centres of Oxford and Bath, affording you the rare luxury of time.
Slow travel offers the ultimate luxury – the time and space to truly connect with the journey itself.
“It allows the mind to decelerate, opening the possibility of deeper connection not only to oneself and to others, but also to new cultures, new perspectives, and different ways of seeing the world….I imagine people eating and dancing, arguing and falling in love, taking photographs, celebrating life’s great moments and adventures – all within a world that offers a pause from the chaos of everyday life. A moment of respite. A moment of celebration. A small, luminous bubble of light and love.“
The first trips onboard Celia will begin in the British Summer and as you might expect, it doesn’t come cheap. Exclusive use of the luxury carriage starts from a staggering £15,000, which includes a private chef, butler and steward, alongside an experience curator and private luxury transfers between Greater London and London Victoria.
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