A remake of perhaps literature's most notorious story of a cad, "The Great Gatsby", will be hitting the big screen next Christmas, Dec. 25, 2012, with director Baz Luhrmann behind the camera for the adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel. The movie started shooting last month, in Australia.
The movie was originally slated to be shot in New York, but a tax rebate persuaded producers to relocate to Luhrmann's home country.
The novel is set in 1922 on New York's Long Island and in New York City. This latest adaptation stars big-name actors including Leonardo DiCaprio, Toby Maguire and Carey Mulligan, as well as famous Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan.
DiCaprio stars as Jay Gatsby, while Maguire plays the book's narrator Nick Carraway. Carey Mulligan plays Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby's love interest. The cast began filming at Sydney's Fox Studios in September, The Australian reports.
The movie's vintage costumes promise to capture the attention of fashionistas everywhere. It was recently announced that Tiffany & Co. had teamed up with the crew to provide the jewelry -- "a collection of platinum-set diamonds and lustrous pearls" -- as well as china and silver flatware that nod to the characters' luxurious lifestyle during the period, according to Forbes.
The 1974 film adaptation of Fitzgerald's 1925 novel starred Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, and featured costumes by designer Ralph Lauren. That collaboration reportedly had "a major impact" on Lauren's career after he provided clothes for Redford, The Australian reports.
Luhrmann and DiCaprio worked together in the director's 1996 adaptation of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". Unlike Luhrmann's previous movies, "The Great Gatsby" is being filmed in 3D.
There may be a year to go, but already another big-name director/DiCaprio-starring movie is scheduled to premiere on the same weekend as "The Great Gatsby".
The actor is also starring in Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained," along actors Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell and Jamie Foxx. According to the Hollywood Reporter, however, that film has not yet started production.