Though it was originally scheduled to reach the silver screen in time for Christmas, Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby has been bumped back by Warner Bros. Now, instead of wowing audiences with its colorful reimagining of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic of the same name, Luhrmann’s flick will debut next summer, amid the typical action movies and CGI-heavy blockbusters that normally occupy the warm months.
Why? The LA Times offers the following explanation:
Warner Bros. said it was moving “Gatsby” from Christmas Day to an unspecified date next summer in order to maximize the film’s commercial prospects.
“We think moviegoers of all ages are going to embrace it, and it makes sense to ensure this unique film reaches the largest audience possible,” said Warner’s head of domestic film distribution in a statement announcing the change.
For those of you in the dark on this film, The Great Gatsby stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the titular, arguably great Jay Gatsby. He’s joined by Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Isla Fisher and Joel Edgerton. Additionally, Gemma Ward plays a character dubbed “Languid Girl,” which is either an inexplicably poetic IMDB description or the name of a really awesome Thurston Moore side project circa 1997.
Oh, and for those of you still scratching your heads over this thing, the movie is based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel originally published in 1925. In the years since, Gatsby has become one of those books that absolutely everyone is forced to read at some point in their education — usually in the course of a high school English class — and despite the tome’s clever dissection of the rift between the old money set and the nouveau riche, it’s largely lost on most people due almost entirely to the fact that the book is force-fed to hormonal teenagers who can barely spell “nouveau riche,” let alone take an educated stance against institutional elitism and America’s makeshift early 20th-century caste system.
As for how Luhrmann might shake things up for his adaptation, one needs only look to this trailer to see that Gatsby will assume the aesthetics and tone of Luhrmann’s previous literary adaptations. Remember the 1996 Romeo And Juliet film adaptation? Or how about Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge? Despite being essentially faithful to their source material, Luhrmann made sure to inject a vibrant, colorful look to everything, along with tons of memorable music. In effect these movies look like modern Jay-Z music videos, only with far fewer cameos by Kanye and almost no references to Blue Ivy.
In that light, we’re greatly looking forward to Gatsby. There is no clearer representation of the gaudy nouveau riche in our modern era than decadent hip hop artists, and we’d like to think that, in the context of the Fitzgerald novel, Luhrmann’s devotion to making his films as ostentatious as possible is actually a subtle commentary on the pitfalls of deifying the almight dollar.
Or maybe Luhrmann just really, really likes sparkles. Either way, it should be something to see.
