The Great Gatsby very well could be the greatest American novel ever written. It’s no wonder that people have attempted to adapt it numerous times over the years (and always failed). Apparently though, Baz Luhrmann thinks he is the man to get the job done right for once and he has officially acquired the rights and it looking to get this project going very quickly. He also thinks the story is very appropriate considering where the world is economically right now.
“If you wanted to show a mirror to people that says, ‘You’ve been drunk on money,’ they’re not going to want to see it. But if you reflected that mirror on another time they’d be willing to. People will need an explanation of where we are and where we’ve been, and ‘The Great Gatsby’ can provide that explanation.”
About a year ago, I wrote how I’d love to see somebody like Robert Downey Jr. taking on the role of the hopelessly in love millionaire Jay Gatsby. I still think he’d be a perfect fit and since he star as risen dramatically in the past year since I wrote that, it seems like far more of a possibility than ever. Take note, Baz. For Nick Carraway, get a young buck like Ryan Gosling or Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I think even DiCaprio would work and Baz has worked with him before. I won’t go on anymore here with dream casting, but this sucker has plenty of potential with a creative mind like Baz behind it. I’m not sure if I even want to see this adapted again, but I’m interested to see how this will all play out.
Source: Coming Soon
Interesting bit of news. Now I wonder what to make of the listing on IMDb that Baz was directing the movie version of the musical “Wicked”. Is that still happening? (For that matter, was it ever?)
Chalk me up for “Who gives a shit?”
Go Baz! The Robert Redford version has been in my queue forever. I haven’t read the book, but I’m familiar with the story.
If that Wicked rumour is true, DOUBLE AWESOME.
While the novel is a fine piece of work, I like it best as a 2-hour read rather than a 2-hour watch. I wonder if Luhrman will kill the film with voice-over like the Robert Redford version does.
I haven’t worked up the energy to see AUSTRALIA at this point, yet.
Ugg the novel is awful. Fitzgerald is a disingenuous pile of shit.
My favorite American novel to date is still probably “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. I wish I could name something I didn’t read in high school, but nothing’s affected me more. Favorite american book overall might be “In Cold Blood”
I remember liking the Great Gatsby when I read it but damned if I can remember anything about it now.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a great book, taking the POV of a potentially insane individual. Probably my favorite American novel too… although Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast is mandatory reading as well.
Favorite american novel so far is Maus, but I don’t read much non-fiction.
Your favorite novel is a cartoon Henrik. You must hate complexity
Maus is about as complex as I can handle. Cartoons are not incapable of complexity, and I have never made such a statement. If you’re going to poke fun, at least have valid points to poke at!
I was teasing. I’m quite familiar with Maus and recognize it as one of the best graphic novels ever produced. I hardly think its the best american novel though, and not because its a ‘cartoon’.
When you have so many massive tomes produced in america though, I hope you realize a book enthusiast would probably see what you wrote and look down at you as ‘childish’ for picking it.
Anybody who loves literature, hell art in generel, would not write off Maus as childish.
Count me down as someone who loves the novel, and I’m thrilled to see Luhrmann tackle the property.
You also love The Video Dead.
I rest my case.
You have no idea what it’s like to do long lectures on American literature, endlessly arguing the validity and beauty of books like The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises and [add your title here], and knowing that if I had to, in all seriousness, I could do a lecture on the validity and beauty of The Video Dead.
When it was finished, you would be in the back of the room, and those would be tears of joy running down your face.