'The Great Gatsby' In 3D? Director Baz Luhrman Considering It For Film

Even Jay Gatsby's party wasn't this excessive: director Baz Luhrman is considering making his new film version of 'The Great Gatsby,' in 3D.

Luhrman spoke at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and told The Hollywood Reporter that he was considering the technology for his movie adaptation of the classic novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. He's gone as far as to workshop the film in the technology.

The next 'Gatsby' is set to star Leonardo DiCaprio as the elusive millionaire, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan and Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, the narrator of the book.

Some consider the book, first published in 1925, the great American novel. Ironically, the book criticizes American excess, something that a 3D film version of an old classic may symbolize.

For more, click over to The Hollywood Reporter.

Comments

[peacekitten]

09:29 PM on 02/09/2011

there are plenty of works of great literature that would make excellent films but have just been left by the wayside. instead of remaking the same things all the time, how about this for a suggestion: ORIGINAL IDEA. the audiences just might like it.

[Hypocrites are Watching]

08:29 AM on 01/14/2011

This book went out of print for nearly three decades. Yeah, Fitzgerald was that important. Then almost thirty years after the rest of the world moved on, two professors wrote a ton of academic papers about Fitzgerald’s “brilliance” in the 1960′s and this book was put back into print to be taught in every high school in the nation. You can almost hear the recurring groans of every student who has ever wondered how this lame rehashed soap opera was ever brought out of printing banishment.

[Fabini]

09:27 AM on 01/13/2011

If The Great Gatsby is re-filmed and shown in 3D, then we, the audience, are the forgotten bespectacled faces on the billboard. Fitzgerald would love the irony.

[rougebaisers]

07:31 AM on 01/13/2011

3d is so annoying.

[neverdeadned]

05:10 PM on 01/11/2011

Dear god why is that movie even being CONSIDERED for 3D

[ProfWagstaff]

03:52 PM on 01/11/2011

Maybe they meant Saw VIII vs The Great Gatsby 3D.

[Chauncey Love]

03:30 PM on 01/11/2011

This seems like an odd choice for 3d.

[Joseph Scott]

03:25 PM on 01/11/2011

Gatsby in 3D or not 3D will not be the problem. The problem will be in getting the story to come to life on the screen, which has been problematic at best, if history is any judge.

I've heard it said that FSF's magic lies in his prose, and of course, since the work is embedded in the narrative, in its luminous tinkling quatrains, it won't translate well to other mediums.

This take on it is borne out historical­ly, as every version suffers mightily trying to get the magic onto the screen. It IS akin to trying to put a dream, literally, before us. And it doesn't work.

I saw an Opera based on Gatsby at the Metropolit­an, and it was really terrible. The creators thought that simply evoking the images in the novel...th­e valley of ashes and the billboard with that wag of an occultist, for instance, would be enough to gin the magic of the story into life.
But it failed.
Cause without music of his narrative, there just ain't no song that will sing in that show.

[raven119]

01:31 PM on 01/11/2011

3D but not a musical? Baz, you're missing something here. It's the Jazz Age with flappers, Rudy Vallee, raccoon coats and the Charleston.

Still, 3D...yeah...a yellow roadster roaring out of the screen and Myrtle being splashed all over the audience --- now that's entertainment.

[garyd63]

11:16 AM on 01/11/2011

Please tell me one thing 3D would add to or improve in Fitzgerald's great novel. This is just more of the amusing ourselves to death (thank you, Neil Postman) slide away from substance into distractions. Soon, with 3D and eBunks, and tweets, we will all be wallowing in Nicholas Carr's shallows.

[Bosy]

07:31 AM on 01/11/2011

Enough with the 3D, seriously.

[66rock]

05:09 AM on 01/11/2011

Can't imagine 3D for a drama, action movie only. Who needs a gimmick with Leo starring
in it anyway!

[msinmo]

03:19 AM on 01/11/2011

Oh, please. Not another movie version of The Great Gatsby! Have they learned nothing in Hollywood??? Fitzgerald's novel cannot be turned into even a decent movie because everything that really counts in it is internal to Jay Gatsby or thematic in terms of the novel's development. In the last Gatsby movie I watched, the clothes and cars looked great, the music was zippy, Myrtle Wilson died her horrible death, and the screenwriter tried to channel FSF with occasional voice overs of his gorgeous prose, but the end result in no way captured the novel. You can't put a dream on the screen, and 3D won't help.

[Reyeshawk13]

11:05 AM on 01/11/2011

Amen to that. Gatsby will NEVER make a decent movie. For the very reasons you mention. 3D will only make it worse.

[Joseph Scott]

03:22 PM on 01/11/2011

"You can't put a dream on the screen."
very nicew...the line is poetry (not for its rhyme).

I've heard it said that FSF's magic lies in his prose, and of course, since the work is embedded in the narrative, in its luminous tinkling quatrains, it won't translate well to other mediums.
This take on it is borne out historically, as every version suffers mightily trying to get the magic onto the screen. It IS akin to trying to put a dream, literally, before us. And it doesn't work.

I saw an Opera at the Metropolitan, and it was really terrible. The creators thought that simply evoking the images in the novel...the valley of ashes and the billboard with that wag of an occultist, for instance, would be enough to gin the magic of the story into life.
But it failed.
Cause without music of his narrative, there just ain't no song that will sing in that show.

Thanks for the interesting phrasing and insight...fanned ya!

[Antoinette Anderson]

01:18 AM on 01/11/2011

Bad idea.

[waldopepper]

12:35 AM on 01/11/2011

F THAT! Citizen Kane in 3D!

[Brian C Bock]

02:28 AM on 01/11/2011

Saddly, Citizen Kane would be a slam dunk for 3D conversion. It was shot with a deep focus technique and composited images that make everything in the frame in sharp focus. So isolating the different layers of depth and applying 3D depth cues would be much easier than other films. That said, what a horrible thought. 3D makes every thing muddy.

[waldopepper]

02:36 AM on 01/11/2011

I bow to your superior cinematography knowledge. Further about 3D. 3D makes piracy less likely. You cannot download illegally the 3D experience. This explains the current faddish nature of the technique. At least this is what James Cameron had thought.

"Cameron thought that 3D filmmaking is best way to fight piracy of the movies but his 3D version of Avatar proved it wrong by making record downloads. "

From here...

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/entertainment/james-cameron%E2%80%99s-avatar-takes-top-position-in-the-most-pirated-list-of-2010_100477822.html