Despite "Australia" being something of a misfire, we're always keen to see what Baz Luhrmann is cooking up -- we may not be unconditionally in love with all his films, but few directors working in big-scale cinema are doing what he does. For some time, Luhrmann's been circling a number of projects: while he flirted with "My Fair Lady," the main contenders have been an unknown historical epic, a musical, possibly a collaboration with "Slumdog Millionaire" composer A.R. Rahmann, and an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby."MTV spoke to our favorite Australian Roger Sterling-lookalike at the premiere of "The Social Network," and he confirmed that he'd narrowed his decision down to two projects, 'Gatsby,' and the mysterious musical, which seems to be set in New York. Luhrmann told them "I've got the script for both of them and I'm making that decision in four to six weeks, no longer than six weeks."
Coincidentally, Production Weekly ran with some casting rumors for 'Gatsby' via Twitter yesterday -- namely Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway and Amanda Seyfried as Daisy Buchanan. DiCaprio makes sense, although there's a suavity to the character he's never quite displayed (Ryan Gosling would be perfect), but as always, the names are probably at this point not much more than names on a wishlist. Luhrmann was non-committal when he spoke to MTV, telling them that "You know I think of casting all the time, but I put that to the side and I complete the text. Obviously there are natural choices and there is a natural top of the list, but I really refuse to say anything until we have the text right." With that in mind, we're certainly not going to take the casting rumors with anything other than a colossal pinch of salt at this point.
That said if the intel is on the right track, both DiCaprio and Maguire do have open calendars in 2011 (with former shooting Clint Eastwood's "Hoover" early in the year) when we presume 'Gatsby' would shoot -- if that's what Luhrmann decides to do. And as DiCaprio and Maguire are good pals, it would certainly lend an extra element to the film.
