The Great Gatsby

Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

From Australian director Baz Luhrmann, the new film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. Luhrmann juxtaposes the classic tale with contemporary sensibility, shot in 3D. While the Jazz Age is represented on screen, he uses contemporary music arranged by music director Jay-Z to complement the story's setting of 1922. Costume designer Catherine Martin collaborated with Miuccia Prada to create period outfits. Cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role, Tobey Maguire as narrator Nick Carraway and Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton as Daisy and Tom Buchanan. 

Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan. Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

The storyline--Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner living in Long Island, grows increasingly fascinated by the lifestyle and mysterious past of Jay Gatsby, his nouveau riche neighbor. Drawn into Gatsby's circle, he becomes a witness to obsession and tragedy.

I wanted to write something new, something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned. --F.Scott Fitzgerald

Photo courtesy Paramount Pictures.

Director Jack Clayton's Academy Award-winning 1974 production, scripted by Francis Ford Coppola, starred Robert Redford as Gatsby and Mia Farrow as Daisy, with a backdrop of Hamptons sets. 

Director Baz Luhrmann on the set. Photo by Justin Ridler, courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

Fitzgerald loved the movies and was a passionate believer in the power of cinema. "The Great Gatsby" has been adapted for the screen no less than four times. Fitzgerald's story defies time and geography. The vision and the goal of our cast and creatives is to do justice to the deftness of Fitzgerald's telling, and illuminate its ideas and humanity. --Luhrmann

It opens May 10 and will lead off the Cannes Film Festival a few days later. Three trailers and stills can be viewed here.