Big B is ready to try his luck in Hollywood. He is debuting in The Great Gatsby directed by the Oscar nominee Buz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge). The Indian film legend Amitabh Bachchan plays the role of Meyer Wolfsheim - a Jewish man Gatsby depicts as a gambler who had fixed the World Series. Wolfsheim is a clear allusion to Arnold Rothstein, a New York crime kingpin who was infamously blamed for the Black Sox Scandal which spoiled the 1919 World Series.
The primary photography stared this week on Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures The Great Gatsby. The film is a new big screen version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel from the inimitably creative mind of writer/producer/director Baz Luhrmann. The filmmaker will create his own characteristic visual explanation of the classic story, bringing the period to life in a way that has never been seen before. Leonardo DiCaprio stars in the title role.
The Great Gatsby follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy, and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan. It is thus that Nick is drawn into the charming world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.
Academy Award nominee DiCaprio handle the role of Jay Gatsby, with Tobey Maguire starring as Nick Carraway, Joel Edgerton and Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan as Tom and Daisy Buchanan, Isla Fisher and Jason Clarke as Myrtle and George Wilson and newcomer Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker.
Oscar nominee Luhrmann directs the film in 3D from a screenplay co-written with frequent collaborator Craig Pearce, based on Fitzgerald's book. Luhrmann produces, along with Catherine Martin, Catherine Knapman, Lucy Fisher and Academy Award winner Douglas Wick (Gladiator). Barrie M. Osborne and Bruce Berman are the executive producers. Two-time Academy Award-winning production and costume designer Catherine Martinalso designs with the director. The editors are Jason Ballantine, Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond, and the director of photography is Simon Duggan.
