Carey Mulligan, Leonardo DiCaprio: Has the Moulin Rouge director created the starriest, glitziest, Greatest Gatsby of all? (DAILY MAIL)

By ANDREW WILSON

A decade ago, Baz Luhrmann booked himself on to the Trans-Siberian Railway.

After the phenomenal success of Moulin Rouge! he needed time alone to ‘decompress’.

‘I had to climb down from the energy involved in promoting the film, so I thought I’d tick one thing off my bucket list,’ says the 50-year-old Australian director.

‘I had this romantic idea of sitting on a train and watching the birch trees of Siberia flickering by.’

Luhrmann packed a couple of bottles of Australian red and an iPod containing an audio book of The Great Gatsby.

‘I was sitting in this little tin box pouring red wine and listening to Fitzgerald’s masterpiece,’ he recalls.

‘When I reached the end, I had such a feeling of loss. It was one of the best and most moving experiences of my life. I knew I had to adapt it into a film.’

Widely regarded as a great American novel, if not the great American novel, The Great Gatsby has captivated readers ever since it was published in 1925.

Fitzgerald’s tragic tale of the love between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan is set in the Roaring Twenties, a period of excessive wealth, glitz and glamour.

Gatsby is a slickly confident millionaire and host of lavish parties at his opulent Long Island mansion.

But he’s not what he seems. All we know for certain is that his real name is James Gatz and that he’s a self-made man; quite possibly a conman. The one absolute and enduring truth in his life is his love for Daisy.

The Great Gatsby anticipated the Wall Street Crash of 1929 by predicting that Gatsby’s parties couldn’t go on forever.

The champagne had to stop flowing. The bubble had to burst. Luhrmann is adamant that Fitzgerald’s novel is as relevant now as it’s ever been.

‘In that moment before the financial  crisis of 2008, I remember thinking that something wasn’t quite right.

The greed and wealth were very reminiscent of The Great Gatsby. I thought, “The time is right to make this film.”’

Five years on and The Great Gatsby is opening next month’s Cannes Film Festival.

READ LOTS MORE FROM THIS ARTICLE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-2311016/The-Great-Gatsby-Has-Moulin-Rouge-director-Baz-Luhrmann-created-starriest-glitziest-Greatest-Gatsby-all.html#ixzz2R6tk9e5R 
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Carey Mulligan: Leonardo DiCaprio's The Great Gatsby to Open Cannes Film Festival by Alexis L. Loinaz (E)

The Cannes Film Festival is angling for a Great kickoff this year.

Festival organizers announced Tuesday that the glitzy Leonardo DiCaprio starrer The Great Gatsby will open the 2013 festival with a splashy premiere on May 15.

The slick reimagining of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic literary tale, directed with signature manic flair by Baz Luhrmann and costarring Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan, will bring the Art Deco–inflected roaring '20s to Cannes' famed Croisette.

"We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts, not only because my first film Strictly Ballroom was screened there 21 years ago, but also because F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of the most poignant and beautiful passages of his extraordinary novel just a short distance away at a villa outside Saint-Raphaël."

The Great Gatsby will be screened at Cannes in 3-D—only the second such film in the festival's history, following Pixar's Up in 2009.

READ MORE: http://www.eonline.com/news/396691/leonardo-dicaprio-s-the-great-gatsby-to-open-cannes-film-festival?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories

Richard Armitage says "PON" for Japanese video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oGn0V4OJWbs

Tom Hardy: Tom Hardy, Leonardo DiCaprio, And Tobey Maguire To Produce Film About Animal Trafficking (CINEMA BLEND)

Author: Eric Eisenberg

Tom Hardy, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Tobey Maguire are pooling together their collective Hollywood influence to make a film about the serious issue of international animal-trafficking. The project, initially thought up by Hardy, is being developed as a Traffic-style multi-plotted tale that will examine how animals are tortured and abused all across the globe.

According to THR, Hardy was initially inspired by Special Forces operatives who traveled to South Africa and other nations as anti-poaching fighters. The trade says that the film will have a wide scope, looking at everything from "the ground war on poachers in the African savanna to how animal material ends up in the fashion houses of Paris." It's unknown at this time if any of the three actors will appear in the movie themselves, but they will serve as producers. Warner Bros. has agreed to house the project and the search is currently on for a writer.

READ MORE: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Tom-Hardy-Leonardo-DiCaprio-Tobey-Maguire-Produce-Film-About-Animal-Trafficking-32677.html

The Great Gatsby trailer

Boy this looks beautiful.  I loved Moulin Rouge too, same look.

'Great Gatsby' trailer: Leo Dicaprio tries on some Jay-Z swagger By Matt Donnelly May 22, 2012, 7:28 p.m. (LA TIMES)

Break out the Champagne: The first trailer for Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" has arrived, and Leonardo DiCaprio is serving up some major swagger.

Early glimpses at the 3-D epic showed off Luhrmann's usual visual flare, and some chic period costumes to boot, but now we've got a full trailer (watch below) where title character DiCaprio and company shine. Some immediate thoughts from the Ministry include...




The Shirts!: We're not sure what your high school English takeaways were from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, but Daisy Buchanan, played by the perfectly cast Carey Mulligan, has a material obsession that would dwarf any "Real Housewives" franchise. Bless Luhrmann for including the iconic moment when Daisy nears ecstasy whilst twirling through Gatsby's lush collection of pastel suit shirts (and shout-out to his two-story closet, the men's answer to Carrie Bradshaw's walk-in in the first "Sex and the City" movie).

READ MORE:  http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/gossip/la-et-mg-great-gatsby-trailer-leo-dicaprio-jay-z-mulligan-maguire,0,1873430.story

The Hobbit: First blog of 2012 from Peter Jackson (THE JOURNAL)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DkqL7iXnTYM

Hobbit Movies

In this latest video, Jackson gives a sneak peek of the sets as filming continues in New Zealand on the second half of the film (The Hobbit: There and Back Again) and discusses the challenges of filming in such scenic surroundings:

http://www.thejournal.ie/im-just-worried-about-the-dinosaurs-on-set-with-the-hobbit-371427-Mar2012/

First Look: Carey Mulligan in costume on “The Great Gatsby” set with Leonardo DiCaprio

by Linda Ge | Tags: baz luhrmann, carey mulligan, images, leonardo dicaprio, set photos, the great gatsby, tobey maguire

 

Baz Luhrmann’s 3D adaptation of iconic 1920s New York classic “The Great Gatsby” has been filming in Australia for over a month now, and today we finally have our first look at leading lady Carey Mulligan on set and in costume as Daisy Buchanan, thanks to Just Jared. Joining her in the new photos and looking all fancied up and dapper are co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, who play Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway, respectively.

Mulligan won the role of Daisy a full year ago after an extensive search that saw the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman vying for the part. But Luhrmann was enthusiastic that Mulligan was his Daisy, saying: “Regarding the role of Daisy Buchanan, I was privileged to explore the character with some of the world’s most talented actresses, each one bringing their own particular interpretation, all of which were legitimate and exciting. However, specific to this particular production of The Great Gatsby, I was thrilled to pick up the phone an hour ago to the young Oscar-nominated British actress Carey Mulligan and say to her: ‘Hello, Daisy Buchanan.’” Luhrmann’s impressive – and highly Australian – cast is rounded out by Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan, Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson, newcomer Elizabeth Debecki as Jordan Baker and Jason Clarke as George Wilson.

“The Great Gatsby” already has a Christmas Day, December 25, 2012 release date. See below for the new images of Mulligan as Daisy, and head to Just Jared for even more.

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