Further to the video I featured in my
previous news update, MTV.com has today posted another
short video
interview with Carey Mulligan at this year's
Comic-Con. Despite being at the event to promote her
latest film, Driven, there is clearly much interest in
The Great Gatsby, as Mulligan has once again been asked
about Luhrmann's film!
Carey Mulligan
Says 'No Singing' In 'The Great Gatsby' MTV.com, 26 July 2011
One of the hottest upcoming films in Hollywood is Baz
Luhrmann's adaptation of "The Great Gatsby," so it's no
surprise that leading lady Carey Mulligan was a bit
nervous about landing the role. MTV News caught up with
the "Never Let Me Go" star when she was at San Diego
Comic-Con promoting her latest flick, "Drive," that
costars Ryan Gosling and Bryan Cranston. According to
her, waiting to hear back about the audition was quite a
stressful experience for her. "I auditioned for that
when I was doing 'Drive,' so [director] Nick [Winding
Refn] was there for the whole phone-ringing, agent, 'Ahh!'
will I, won't I," Mulligan explained.
There's not much known about the upcoming project. The
casting is mostly completed, with Leonardo DiCaprio
playing the titular Gatsby and Tobey Maguire playing
leading man Nick Carraway, but so far Luhrmann still
hasn't decided if he wants to shoot in 3D or not and
filming has not yet started. One thing's for sure,
though: there won't be any singing in this Luhrmann
flick. "No singing," Mulligan said emphatically. "As I
say, it's been eight months since I got the job, so I've
had a lot of time to think about it."
Carey Mulligan has spoken to
Digital Spy at this year's Comic-Con and has
said she thinks working with Baz Luhrmann on The
Great Gatsby will be "awesome".
Check out the great video interview with Mulligan below! :)
Carey Mulligan
"terrified" of 'Great Gatsby' role
Digital Spy, 25 July 2011
Carey Mulligan has admitted that she is "terrified"
about starring in Baz Luhrmann's big-screen adaptation
of The Great Gatsby. The British actress was cast as
Daisy Buchanan back in November 2010, and said that she
is nervous about starting rehearsals for the project
next month. "Terrified, of course I am," Mulligan told
Empire at Comic-Con International this weekend.
"The whole thing was always meant to happen now, it's
just [Luhrmann] cast me back then and then I think he
started casting everybody else," the actress explained.
"[It was] just more time for me to freak out at home on
my own."
Mulligan also said that the lengthy time between being
cast and starting work on the project allowed her to
fully research both her character and The Great Gatsby
writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.
"It's been so interesting, I've had so much time and
I've been able to read so much Fitzgerald," she
revealed. "I've had a lot of time to get into it so I
can't wait to start." Mulligan added that she was "so
excited" about getting the opportunity to work alongside
the Romeo + Juliet director.
The actress is joined in The Great Gatsby cast by
Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Isla
Fisher and Elizabeth Debicki. The Great Gatsby begins
filming in September. Watch Carey Mulligan discuss the
upcoming film at Comic-Con below:
Pre-Production of 'Gatsby' underway!
Although we have not heard anything from
Bazmark since mid-May, it has now been revealed that
pre-production of The Great Gatsby is currently
happening at Fox Studios in Sydney, and that filming is
set to begin around mid-September 2011.
The
Sydney Morning Herald has reported the following
detailed article. This is exciting
news, as we now have confirmation that the
pre-production is definitely underway!
Baz puts great in
Gatsby
The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 July 2011
A decade ago he
recreated 19th-century Paris's famed Moulin Rouge and
had Nicole Kidman swinging from a trapeze inside
Sydney's Fox Studios. Then it was dusty Faraway Downs,
with Kidman joined by Hugh Jackman for Australia. Now,
in the same film lot, work is underway on Luhrmann's
next folly: 1920s Americana and all its glamour.
More than 200 workers are feverishly transforming the
Moore Park sound stages into an enclave of the super
rich, Long Island in the summer of 1922, in preparation
for filming to begin on Luhrmann's $150 million take on
F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic The Great Gatsby. The
cameras are not set to start rolling until mid-September
when stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jason Clarke, Tobey
Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Joel Edgerton and
Elizabeth Debicki will arrive to help Luhrmann revive
the American literary classic in 3D.
Gatsby tells the dramatic story of Nick Carraway, played
by Spiderman's Maguire, an idealistic yet naive
Midwesterner lured into the lavish world of glamorous
parties and fast cars belonging to his millionaire
neighbour, Jay Gatsby, played by DiCaprio. Fisher plays
Myrtle Wilson, who is cheating on her mechanic husband,
George, played by Jason Clarke. Joel Edgerton plays Tom
Buchanan, Carraway's arrogant cousin, who is having the
affair with Fisher's character behind his wife Daisy's
back (played by Mulligan), an old flame of Gatsby's he
is keen to win back. Newcomer Elizabeth Debicki will
play Jordan Baker, Carraway's lover.
Set in the years following World War I, the film
promises to provide Luhrmann's wife and creative
visionary Catherine Martin with fertile ground to create
extravagant costumes and sets. Scenes shot in Sydney
will recreate New York's Plaza Hotel and Long Island's
magnificent mansions where Gatsby hosted the decadent
and incredibly chic parties Carraway found so
egregiously mesmerising. Indeed the mansion Lands End in
Sands Point, New York, where Fitzgerald partied and is
said to have inspired his famous novel, was razed by
bulldozers in April, the huge white mansion with
imposing colonnades reduced to a pile of rubble.
Luhrmann's team has already acquired a fleet of shiny
vintage cars, currently being shipped to Sydney for the
shoot from Volo Auto Museum in Illinois. The cars
include a pair of 1929 Duesenbergs and a 1929 Packard,
both intended to be used by DiCaprio's character. The
cars are rumoured to be worth up to $3 million each.
Luhrmann and Martin recently threw a farewell party in
New York, attended by mates including Jackman, and are
understood to have returned to Sydney and their
Darlinghurst mansion Iona in the lead up to the shoot.
Gatsby to be
first 3D Red Epic Film
Inside Film has today confirmed that The Great Gatsby
will be shot in 3D. In the past, Baz
Luhrmann has been coy about defining whether or not the
movie would actually be filmed in 3D, but it will be
according to this article. Inside Film mistakenly reported
that filming will begin next month (which, until now,
was the common perception), but it has revealed that this
is set to be a four month shoot.
Baz Luhrmann's
The Great Gatsby to be shot with RED EPIC and 3ality
rigs
Inside Film, 25 July 2011
Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is set to become the
first major Australian 3D feature shot with the RED EPIC
camera and 3ality rigs. Cinematographer Simon Duggan ACS
said he completed tests on the EPIC with Luhrmann in New
York last month and was “very happy” with the results.
“It’s not that much bigger than a standard film camera,”
he said, adding that the EPIC also allows shooting
hand-held or with a Steadicam.
The film is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic 1920s
novel and will star Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan
and Joel Edgerton. Duggan said the film will be shot at
5K resolution to allow blowups and visual effects.
Panavision Australia will supply the three EPIC cameras
(including one backup), as well as the 3ality rigs, for
the shoot.
The four-month shoot begins at Fox Studios Australia
next month and wraps up in December. Alex Proyas' VFX-heavy
Paradise Lost epic is also expected to take up a sound
stage during that time.
24 July
2011
Carey
Mulligan 'raring to go' on Gatsby
BBC News has recently spoken to Carey Mulligan
about her upcoming role in The Great Gatsby. We
have not heard from Bazmark since mid-May, but the media
is still reporting that this much anticipated movie is
still set to begin filming next month. Mulligan
says she is "raring to go" on the production, and has
also commented that it has been "really research
intensive".
Carey Mulligan 'raring to
go' on Gatsby
BBC News, 22 July 2011
Carey Mulligan says she has
done intensive research ahead of filming The Great
Gatsby in Australia next month. The Oscar-nominated
actress will play socialite Daisy Buchanan in Baz
Luhrmann's version of F Scott Fitzgerald's classic
American novel.
Mulligan, who has just finished
in a stage play in New York, told the BBC: "It's
daunting. It's the biggest thing I've been involved in -
it's strange going from a little off-Broadway play to
such a big thing, but I'm raring to go."
Filming begins at Fox Studios
in Sydney in August. Luhrmann's last two films,
Australia and Moulin Rouge, were also shot there.
According to industry paper The Hollywood Reporter, it
will be the first live-action 3D movie to be shot in New
South Wales. The story itself is set in New York.
Mulligan stars opposite
Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays the mysterious Jay Gatsby
and Tobey Maguire as narrator Nick Carraway. The most
famous film version of The Great Gatsby is Jack
Clayton's 1974 movie, which starred Robert Redford as
Gatsby, Mia Farrow as Buchanan and Sam Waterston as
Carraway.
Mulligan said that the whole
Gatsby cast had got together in New York earlier this
year to workshop the characters. "It's really research
intensive. We got overloaded with books and research
files. I've been reading Zelda Fitzgerald [wife of F
Scott] biographies about [Chicago socialite] Ginevra
King and all these characters that Daisy was drawn
from."
Tributes for
David Ngoombujarra
On a more sombre note, Aboriginal actor
David Ngoombujarra, who starred as
the Drover's close friend
Magarri in Baz Luhrmann's Australia, tragically died last weekend.
Hugh Jackman and Baz Luhrmann have paid tribute, as
detailed in the following
AFP article:
Tributes flow for Aboriginal actor
Ngoombujarra
AFP, 20 July 2011
SYDNEY — Tributes have flowed for
Aboriginal actor David Ngoombujarra who died on the
weekend, with Hollywood star Hugh Jackman describing him
as "an extraordinary man". Ngoombujarra, 44, had starred in several iconic
Australian films including "Rabbit-Proof Fence" and the
Baz Luhrmann directed 2008 feature "Australia" with
Nicole Kidman. He was found in a park in Fremantle, Western
Australia, on Sunday and later pronounced dead in
hospital. Police are awaiting a toxicology report to
pinpoint the cause of death but are not treating it as
suspicious.
Jackman, who co-starred with Ngoombujarra in
"Australia", tweeted of "an extraordinary man, actor and
friend." "His laugh, warmth and humanity will live on with all
who knew him," he said.
Luhrmann told The Australian newspaper that
Ngoombujarra had an "extraordinary spirit, life force
and creativity" which lifted spirits during the many
months of shooting "Australia".
Indigenous actor and presenter Ernie Dingo, who
co-starred with Ngoombujarra in an ABC television
series, described his friend as a man who was "always in
touch with his culture, wherever he was". "Very sadly, he was lost between two cultures," he
said.
2 July 2011
Joel Edgerton
Talks 'The Great Gatsby'
With filming of The Great Gatsby reportedly set to begin
in Sydney next month, we can hopefully expect more news of the
upcoming production very soon. Indeed, Hugh Jackman
recently let us all know that Baz Luhrmann and Catherine
Martin have now headed back to Australia in preparation
for the shoot. On 25 June, Jackman posted on his
Twitter
page the following tweet:
"went to a farewell party 4 baz
luhrmann & catherine martin who are heading down under 4
gatsby. bon voyage & birth to a future masterpiece!"
Jackman also posted a photo of Luhrmann and
Martin at the party - check it out
here!
In the meantime,
Entertainment Weekly has talked to Joel Edgerton
about his role as Tom Buchanan:
Joel Edgerton talks 'The Great Gatsby': 'Tom Buchanan is
a complicated fellow' -
Entertainment Weekly, 28 June 2011
Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom) is currently in Paris to
promote his new film Warrior, the action-packed
tearjerking tale co-starring Tom Hardy, written and
directed by Gavin O’Connor (Miracle), about estranged
brothers who must face each other in a mixed martial
arts championship. (It hits theaters Sept. 9.) But EW
was also able to ask the 37-year-old actor about his
next role: that of Tom Buchanan in the highly
anticipated Baz Luhrmann adaptation of F. Scott
Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
“I can’t wait,” says Edgerton. “Tom Buchanan is a
fantastic character … a very complicated fellow. I love
Baz and I think the cast he’s got together is just
incredible — every single one of them.” Indeed! Edgerton
joins Leonardo DiCaprio, who will play the enigmatic Jay
Gatsby; Tobey Maguire as narrator Nick Carraway; Carey
Mulligan as Gatsby’s object of affection Daisy Buchanan;
and Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson, Tom Buchanan’s
mistress. Edgerton joined the cast after Ben Affleck —
who had been in talks with the director — passed on the
role due to scheduling conflicts with his Iran hostage
thriller, Argo.
“This is the cool thing about being an actor,” says
Edgerton, who has been learning to play polo for his
Gatsby role. “All sorts of things become a privilege,
you know? Getting to learn different things about
different peoples’ lives … getting to live the life of a
fighter for a little while and then getting to jump on a
horse and play polo. There’s a real childish excitement
for me. And one of the other privileges is getting to
work with extraordinary people.” He laughs. “The idea of
going toe-to-toe with Leonardo… “
Oh, and there’s one extra benefit for Edgerton: The
Great Gatsby will be filming in his native Australia.
“The studio is quite close to where I live,” he says. “I
love being in Los Angeles, but I particularly love being
home.”
