I have a feeling the freshly debuted trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby” is going to draw a line in the sand. On one side, those a bit stricken by the apparent tone and visual direction the “Moulin Rouge!” director has taken the F. Scott Fitzgerald story. On the other, those who feel the material is getting a unique and vivid spin that could be good for it.
Or maybe there’ll be in-betweeners. Because now that I think about it, I’m kind of on both sides of things. Maybe if you liked what Luhrmann did to Shakespeare in “Romeo + Juliet” (I did), you’ll be on board for this. Maybe it’s not so reductive. But I’m intrigued.
And this is the note the director plays. I actually thought he might play a different one this time, but nope, this is definitely a Baz Luhrmann joint. The (melo)drama is high. The people are pretty. The set and costume designs from his wife, Catherine Martin, are eye-popping. This will be a feast for the eyes.
DiCaprio is teaming up with Luhrmann for the first time since the aforementioned 1996 Bard adaptation. Best buddy Tobey Maguire is in tow this time, along with Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton, among others.
Warner Bros. is distributing, and already the studio looks to have a full plate of potential offerings this season. In addition to Luhrmann’s film, there is Ben Affleck’s “Argo” and Ruben Flesicher’s “Gangster Squad,” which debuted trailers recently; Robert Lorenz’s “Trouble with the Curve,” which might as well be called Clint Eastwood’s “Trouble with the Curve”; Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” which drew a lot of harsh skepticism at the recent Las Vegas CinemaCon for its use of 48 fps technology; and, oh yeah, “The Dark Knight Rises,” Christopher Nolan’s superhero denouement that already has high awards season expectations in the wake of “The Dark Knight”‘s 2008 success.
So how will “The Great Gatsby” fit into all of that? We’ll see in December, as the film opens on Christmas Day — the same day as another DiCaprio vehicle, in fact: Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained.”
Check out the new trailer for “The Great Gatsby,” courtesy of Apple, via the embed at the top of this post.