Baz Luhrmann, director of The Great Gatsby. Source: Supplied
HIS 3D re-boot of The Great Gatsby has been labelled everything from 'daring' to 'risky' but Baz Luhrmann insists the famed author of the original novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald, would approve.
Luhrmann has made the bold claim in an interview with The New York Times, saying the American literary icon - who penned the novel in 1925 - would give his blessing to the film on the grounds that he enjoyed cinema.
"He was a modernist. . . he was very influenced by the cinema," Luhrmann has told The New York Times this week.
The director also revealed the idea for the $125 million remake came about 10 years ago, not long after he wrapped up Moulin Rouge, on a train trip from Asia to Europe on the Trans-Siberian Railway with "some bottles of red Australian wine and earphones".
He says he listened to The Great Gatsby on recorded books and began to wonder why Fitzgerald's novel, which he said he found "exquisite", had seemed to elude the previous two filmmakers.
Luhrmann's version sees Leonardo DiCaprio playing Jay Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan and Tobey Maguire as the narrator Nick Carraway and is modelled - according to Luhrmann - on Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder, which he insisted the cast watch prior to filming.
As for his controversial decision to shoot the film in 3D, Luhrmann admitted he had come up against some opposition to the idea but was confident with his choice, saying the three-dimensional technique put the viewer "in the room".
"Everyone has strong, and generally opposing, opinions, when you mention 3D, or The Great Gatsby, or Baz Luhrmann," he added.
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