'The Great Gatsby' Director Baz Luhrmann Talks Inspiration For Film [Spoilers]

The Great Gatsby, directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan, opens today and promises to give audiences a 3D spectacle in the fourth adaptation of the classic novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Luhrmann, who also directed Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge! and Australia, believed that Fitzgerald’s novel catered well to being made into a movie.

“I just felt there is a movie here because of its concise construction,” Luhrmann said in a news conference. “On a technical level, there is a movie here that hasn’t been done yet.”

Luhrmann also revealed that he came across the idea for a movie while listening to the novel on audiobook while traveling by train from China to France.

“I was taking photos of my point of view,” Luhrmann said. “The wine bottle, the window. You can see the iPod with the speakers. I listened to it over two nights. The modernity of the story just kicked me over. It was really transcendent.”

Luhrmann’s film takes a few creative liberties with the novel, most notably by having Nick Carraway (Maguire) retell the story while he is in a sanitarium treated for alcoholism after his wild summer with Gatsby (DiCaprio).

The Great Gatsby has been polarizing thus far, as suggested by its 45% rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The movie incorporates 3D and hip-hop (including hits from Jay-Z and Beyonce) while still being set in the 1920s.

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