Baz the Great! - A Baz Luhrmann Fansite

Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter was the first to announce that Australian actor Jason Clarke has been cast in the role of George Wilson in The Great Gatsby. Clarke completes the casting of the major characters in Baz Luhrmann's upcoming movie.

The Hollywood Reporter also stated that filming will begin in the fall. As far as I know, the American fall starts in September but, previously, the State Government of New South Wales advised that filming is due to start in August. However, Variety today reported that the shoot will begin at the end of July! Despite the general confusion regarding the actual starting time, it now seems certain that The Great Gatsby will begin shooting in the next couple of months or so.

Jason Clarke Snags Key Role in 'The Great Gatsby' (Exclusive) - The Hollywood Reporter

The "Chicago Code" star joins an A-list cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio in Baz Luhrmann's feature adaptation. Jason Clarke has nabbed one of the final key roles in Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow.

The filmmaker has lined up an A-list cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio as the wealthy and mysterious Jay Gatsby; Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, who in the novel is the narrator; Carey Mulligan as Gatsby's love, Daisy Buchanan; and Isla Fisher as Myrtle, a married woman having an affair with Buchanan.

Lurhmann has been leaning towards filling the last big roles with Australian actors, a move which will help the production secure tax credits as it moves towards a fall shoot in Down Under. Rising male actor Joel Edgerton was cast in mid-May as Buchanan.

Clarke, who hails from Australia, will play George Wilson, the cuckholded husband of Myrtle and the man who brings the story to its climax.

Clarke starred in the TV shows Brotherhood and more recently The Chicago Code. He recently wrapped production on The Wettest County in the World, John Hillcoat’s ensemble period drama that also stars Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy, and has The Fields, the crime movie starring Sam Worthington and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, in the can. Clarke is repped by UTA and Robert Stein Management.

Luhrmann No. 2 in Encore's Power 50

Encore Magazine recently announced its 'Power 50', in which it chooses "a select group of screen professionals who have achieved new heights in 2010/2011, whose decisions influence and shape Australia's audiovisual industry, and whose work has stood out from the crowd." Baz Luhrmann was named second in this year's list, with the following description:

2. Baz Luhrmann – Director, writer, producer

There’s no Australian filmmaker as controversial as Baz Luhrmann. It's not just his films that polarise opinions; it's everything he does or plans to do. How many words have been written about his next project The Great Gatsby before the cameras even start rolling? From his decision to shoot the New York classic in Sydney and in, oh blasphemy, stereoscopic 3D, to the debate over the 'Australianness' of the project and its eligibility to receive financial incentives, there's no denying Baz is one of the most important artists and businessmen the country has seen.

5 June 2011

'Gatsby' is CM's "Biggest Challenge to Date"

Last month, MTV.com hosted an hour-long webcast to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! (Check out my 10th Anniversary page).

The event was held in the very early hours of the morning in Australian time, so most Australian fans (like me) missed the live broadcast. Afterwards, MTV posted several clips on their website, which was fantastic, but unfortunately they did not post the entire webcast. I found this disappointing, as fans had been asked to send in questions via Twitter, yet in all of the clips posted on MTV's website, only one Twitter question was actually asked. I was particularly disappointed that we did not get to hear from Catherine Martin (CM) in any of the MTV clips, particularly because I had been told that she had been asked my Twitter question!

I have now kindly been provided with a copy of the entire MTV webcast by a fellow fan, so I have finally been able to watch the entire MTV footage. And I am happy to report that yes, CM was asked my Twitter question! While MTV did post most of the webcast highlights on their website, I do think that this segment should also have been featured, as CM actually mentioned The Great Gatsby as her "biggest challenge to date"!

At around 45 minutes into the webcast, while CM was talking about the costumes in Moulin Rouge!, the host asked my question. My Twitter handle, 'bazthegreat', appeared onscreen and the host read outloud my question. CM then answered in detail, which I have transcribed below:

My Question: "Catherine - The costumes in Moulin Rouge! were brilliant, but complex. Was this your most challenging film to work on?"

Host: "I would suspect they're all challenging, but is this the most challenging would you say?"

CM: "Look, every time you start a new film, you swing between kind of arrogant cockiness that you're going to blitz it and total and utter abject fear that grips your very entrails. And I remember when Baz told me we were going to make Moulin Rouge!, I went "A can-can movie? You're kidding me! How are we going to make that work?" And I was like "Oh my God, I don't know how to do that." But every movie that I've made, and I think that's another gift, is that Baz is always going to unchartered territories so there are always challenges that I've never met before. In Moulin Rouge!, one of the most interesting parts of the challenges was actually getting the can-can skirts technically to work because they are a bit of an engineering feat. And we tried lots of different manufacturing ways of doing them but they are very heavy and they used to hurt the dancer's hips so we had to work out a way of making them very light and very moveable. So, what is my ... I'll tell you, it's the movie I'm working on right now is my biggest challenge to date! (points at Baz) We were only just having a discussion about it an hour or so ago..."

Baz: "What movie is that?"

Host: (laughing) "Does it rhyme with Bait Batsby?"

Baz: "Ok, ok..."

Host: "We'll get to that in a second. I'm going to ask a couple of questions about that one."

The host then changed the subject, and we know that The Great Gatsby was discussed later on. However, I love how Luhrmann was caught off guard by CM's comments about the movie and interrupted her to stop her talking about it! Obviously, Luhrmann wants the making of The Great Gatsby to remain as mysterious as possible (we already know this from the limited information that has been officially released so far!) This elusiveness is typical in the pre-production of Luhrmann's films, and this is also why I try to report every tidbit of information I can here on my website, so that fans can put the pieces together in anticipation. But I thought this was a great moment in the webcast, and I'm glad it was my question that led to it! :)

Meanwhile, we have not heard any official Gatsby news since Joel Edgerton's casting as Tom Buchanan, but hopefully we will hear more soon!

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