Carey Mulligan to Play Luhrmann's Daisy

No, this isn't a fictional Martin Scorsese/Vincent Chase project from "Entourage." Director Baz Luhrmann is going to do his own take on the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby. I'm assuming it'll be quite a bit unlike any previous versions we've seen, such as the 1974 version that starred Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, or the 2000 TV movie featuring Mira Sorvino. Today news comes via Deadline that Luhrmann has settled on his Daisy Buchanan, having officially given the role to the up-and-coming Carey Mulligan, and also giving us our first sneak peak at the actress in character for the role.

Mulligan, who first garnered a lot of attention in An Education and further proved her chops in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, was one of several actresses being considered for the role. (Others included Rebecca Hall, Keira Knightley, Amanda Seyfried, Blake Lively, Scarlett Johansson, and Michelle Williams.) She'll play opposite Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby and Tobey Maguire in the role of Nick Carraway.

Click to read more ...

Short List for 'Gatsby's Daisy Not So Short

The bits of casting news we've gotten for Baz Luhrmann's planned adaptation of The Great Gatsby have been small in number but large in scale.  A few weeks ago it was reported that the director staged one of his usual workshop/read-throughs with Academy Award Nominee Leonardo DiCaprio in the titular role, Golden Globe Nominee Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, and current "it girl" Rebecca Hall as Daisy.

We'd heard about DiCaprio and Maguire in those roles for a while now, but Hall was new to the scene.  And it looks like Luhrmann may not be sold on what he saw of her in the workshop as a few more names were thrown into the mix today in the form of a "short" list that included Keira Knightley, Amanda Seyfried, Blake Lively, Abbie Cornish, Michelle Williams, Scarlett Johansson, and Natalie Portman.

Click to read more ...

Nicole Kidman Also Thinks She Was Lousy in 'Australia'

It turns out, Nicole Kidman had the same reaction to Australia as the rest of us. In a recent radio interview, Kidman said, "I can't look at this movie and be proud of what I've done...I sat there and I looked at [husband Keith Urban] and went 'Am I any good in this movie?'" While I didn't think it was all Kidman's fault, she sure wasn't anything special and Australia was hardly the movie a lot of us expected. It was bloated, undone by its own desire to be great and meaningful. But the story was problematic for director Baz Luhrmann, who should have placed more restrictions on an "epic" story. Kidman actually says the only two films she's watched in her career are Australia and her other Baz collaboration, Moulin Rouge!, which I find difficult to accept. She doesn't throw her director or her cast members under the bus with Australia, pointing out that Hugh Jackman and young Brandon Walters are "wonderful" in the movie, but countered by saying, "It's just impossible for me to connect to it emotionally at all." Once again, Kidman and I see eye to eye.

Baz, Fox Can't Even Give 'Australia' Away

It has not been a dream scenario for director Baz Luhrmann: His new epic, Australia was a huge financial burden for 20th Century Fox, adding up to $160 million in budget spending, according to some reports. Then it was barely finished on time, and it showed up in theaters both dead on arrival commercially and lambasted critically. To date, the film has only made $63 million worldwide. Could one of the reasons for the slow box office be illegal downloading? No, Luhrmann can't even blame the pirates in this case. An article in The Sydney Morning Herald reveals that the film is barely getting any action on Bit Torrent, a combination of the poor quality of the illegally recorded version of the film, Australia's excruciating length, and the poor notices. "The number of 'seeds' - people who have downloaded the full film and are sharing it - is below 10 for most copies of the film but one boasts 400 seeds," observes the paper. At one point, Luhrmann's film was thought to be a potential player at the end of the year, both commercially and for awards. But now all the director and the studio can do is lick their wounds, hope for a bountiful DVD release, which also seems unlikely, and move on.

Baz Luhrmann Takes On 'The Great Gatsby'

I was so looking forward to Australia, as any regular Big Picture reader knows, but man, was that thing a disappointment. The story ran amok, and it could have been great had it chosen to be about one thing instead of three. The ending felt ladled on and supremely unnatural. And I question director Baz Luhrmann, showing the beauty of his homeland, resorting to soundstages and digital effects to alter the color of the sky.

Audiences have responded less than favorably, as well, as it won't come close to making back its budget in the theatrical run. Three-hour-long movies that cost $130 million have a way of doing that.But Baz is moving on, and according to Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily, the next project on the horizon for Luhrmann is The Great Gatsby. If you've never read the book, you're not as enlightened as you should be. And in a way, F. Scott Fitzgerald was laying the tracks for a great movie, even if he didn't know it at the time. The same could be said of his short story that has become The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which couldn't be made properly for decades.

Click to read more ...