Baz the Great! - A Baz Luhrmann Fansite

Fanpop has posted five photos of Leonardo DiCaprio riding a bicycle around Fox Studios, where Baz Luhrmann's movie The Great Gatsby is currently being filmed. It looks as though he is dressed in character as Jay Gatsby. These images were apparently taken on 12 September 2011, and this is the second time we have seen DiCaprio in character on set.

Bachchan to do 'Gatsby' for free

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Amitabh Bachchan, who will play Meyer Wolfsheim in the film, has confirmed his character will appear in just one scene and his participation in The Great Gatsby will be for free, as reported by Times of India:

Big B to make Hollywood debut for free
Times of India, 12 September 2011

Amitabh Bachchan's Hollywood debut in The Great Gatsby is a friendly appearance. On Sunday night, the actor wrote on his blog: "My participation in Baz Luhrmann's film The Great Gatsby is a mere one scene appearance as a friendly gesture. Baz Luhrmann during his private visit to India last year, had dropped by my office to meet me and presented me with some paintings of a prominent painter that was accompanying him. He called last month and wondered if I would do this small role in his film and I agreed. It is a gesture. I have refused any remuneration on this too."

Bachchan's recent visit to Australia was for the script reading of the film. He wrote, "I have gone down to Sydney and had a preliminary reading of the script with the entire cast and done hair makeup costume rehearsals. It has been a wonderful experience to be a part of their system and to observe with what detail and diligence they work."

11 September 2011

First Photo of DiCaprio as 'Gatsby'

The Daily Telegraph has been reporting frequently from the Fox Studios Gatsby set, and on 8 September 2011 they posted the first photo of Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby. The image is taken from a distance, but shows DiCaprio in a suit with slicked back hair and looking very dapper indeed! Hopefully we see more photos from the set soon...

Luhrmann praises Amitabh Bachchan

News of the casting of Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby has resulted in a lot of media publicity, with the news spreading quickly across the internet and much speculation and discussion taking place.

Times of India reported that Luhrmann approached Bachchan while visiting India last year, and also quotes Bachchan as saying, "Last year Baz Luhrmann was on a private visit to India and dropped by at my office to meet me and presented me some wonderful paintings done by an Australian artist." Visitors to Baz the Great! may recall that this painting (above) was done by artist Vincent Fantauzzo and was displayed at last year's Hong Kong Art Fair. An Indian themed booth showcased the portrait, based on an image taken when Fantauzzo and Luhrmann met with Bachchan in Mumbai during their trip to India in January 2010.

The Independent reported the following article which features quotes from Luhrmann where he further discusses how the pair came to work together and praises Bachchan, saying he is "honoured to have him on board":

Beyond Bollywood: star goes global alongside DiCaprio in 3D Gatsby
The Independent, 9 September 2011

Over the course of more than four decades, India’s biggest movie star, Amitabh Bachchan, has performed in around 150 Bollywood movies and featured as everything from hero to villain. But despite his prominence within Indian cinema, at no time did an international project come knocking; as recently as this summer, the 68-year wistfully told an online forum: “No one has made an offer, but I am happy working here in India.”

But that is all set to change. This week it was confirmed that the so-called Big B has been signed up to perform alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire in a new, 3-D adaptation of the F Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby. Members of the cast have already arrived in Australia where filming is set to begin, under the direction of Baz Luhrmann.

“I am personally thrilled that one of the world’s great screen legends, Amitabh Bachchan, is joining the cast. Over the years, Amitabh’s films have made a tremendous impression on my life and work,” Luhrmann told the Indo-Asian News Service. “I was lucky enough to meet Amitabh at his home in Mumbai last year when I was doing a charity art project? We spoke at that time of working together and finding a project in the very near future.”

The Indian veteran is to play the role of Meyer Wolfsheim, a figure from the world of organised crime who helps millionaire Jay Gatsby make his money. In the 1925 novel, which has been filmed a number of times, most recently with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow in the lead roles, Wolfsheim is described as a man who fixed the 1919 baseball World Series.

Mr Luhrmann added: “With the pivotal role of Wolfsheim, we have found the collaboration. I couldn't be happier. I know that Amitabh is doing this from the point of the quality of Fitzgerald’s text, the tremendous cast, and, most importantly, as a gesture of good will and friendship. I’m honoured to have him on board.” Warner Brothers said in a statement that in his version of Fitzgerald’s melancholic elegy to the roaring Jazz Age, Luhrmann will “create his own distinctive visual interpretation of the classic story, bringing the period to life in a way that has never been seen before”.

Bachchan was in Australia last month. However, according to the Agence France-Presse, his entries on his blog, which he regularly updates, did not let slip the secret of his forthcoming role. In one cryptic entry on August 29 he wrote about returning to India and mused: “Time has been spent well and hopefully judiciously. Days ahead will tell us whether it was fruitful or not.”

Yesterday, the actor who has starred in popular Hindi-language films such as Sholay and Deewaar, was unusually silent.

While DiCaprio will play the lead role in the £90m movie, with British actress Carey Mulligan as his lover, Daisy Buchanan, Maguire will feature as Nick Carraway, the would-be writer from American mid-west and the novel’s narrator, who moves to New York and is beguiled by Gatsby and his circle. Industry reports suggest the film will be released early next year. Joel Edgerton and Isla Fisher are also said to be among the cast.

In a statement, Luhrmann, whose previous credits include Strictly Ballroom and Romeo and Juliet, added: “Fitzgerald loved the movies and was a passionate believer in the power of cinema. The Great Gatsby has been adapted for the screen no less than four times. Fitzgerald’s story defies time and geography. The vision and the goal of our remarkable cast and creatives is to do justice to the deftness of Fitzgerald’s telling, and illuminate its big ideas and humanity. This is our challenge and our adventure.”

Edgerton on Luhrmann: 'The Ultimate Ringleader'

The West Australian has reported that Australian actor Felix Williamson, star of Aussie television series Underbelly: Razor and stepson of playwright David Williamson, has been cast in a small role in The Great Gatsby. He is quoted as saying, "I'm in The Great Gatsby, playing a Frenchman, Henri, and that's about all I can say. A period piece set in 1922, it's an extraordinary story, a beautifully developed script."

Meanwhile, New York Magazine recently interviewed Joel Edgerton about his new film, Warrior, and also threw in the following couple of questions regarding his involvement in The Great Gatsby:

When it comes to The Great Gatsby, is it a big deal as an Australian actor to finally be working for Baz Luhrmann?
Oh, f*ck yeah. Baz is like P.T. Barnum to me, the ultimate ringleader. He's an artist on a locomotive train steaming down a tunnel and willing to stick his neck out the window, which is even more remarkable if you've grown up in Australia, because Australia is the land of the tall poppy. You know what I mean by that, right?

Where the "tall poppy" is someone who succeeds and gets cut down for it?
Australians and the British are very similar: If you try and stand out in any way and you try to reach for success, someone is gonna be there to cut you down. That makes Baz's willingness to go out on a limb even more extraordinary, I think. In reference to Gatsby, I was trying to work out the book from an outsider's point of view: What is so special about this book? And there are a lot of special things. It says a lot about America and the world at that time, but it also is just extraordinarily well written. The descriptive language is so wonderfully concise — Fitzgerald just had the ability to put words next to each other that seemed right and perfect. So to imagine this as a movie, how does that written language equate to a visual language? You need someone who has a real strong command of the visual and a sense of poetry about them, and Baz to me is the right guy for that.

7 September 2011

More 'Gatsby' Production Details

Casting Correction - Despite earlier reports that Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan had been cast in The Great Gatsby, The Hollywood Reporter (below) and also other sources such as SAWF News have now confirmed that the correct actor is actually Amitabh Bachchan (pictured above). Furthermore, Times of India has reported that Warner Brothers have confirmed he will play the role of Meyer Wolfsheim. I have now updated this casting news on my Great Gatsby page.

Today, Baz Luhrmann issued a statement regarding The Great Gatsby. While I have not been able to locate this actual statement, Luhrmann's comments have been quoted in many news articles today. But it was The Hollywood Reporter that posted the most descriptive article, which confirms filming began on Monday and discloses further production details:

Baz Luhrmann's $125 Milllion 'The Great Gatsby' Begins Production in Sydney
The Hollywood Reporter, 7 September 2011

SYDNEY - The high-octane cast of The Great Gatsby, led by Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, has gathered in Sydney for the start of production of Baz Lurhmann’s 3D adaptation of the American classic this week. The two leads will be joined by Indian superstar Amitabh Bachchan, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke and newcomer Elizabeth Debicki, Luhrmann said Wednesday. DiCaprio stars in the title role as Jay Gatsby, with Maguire as Nick Carraway. Joel Edgerton and Carey Mulligan appear as Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Bachchan will play the role of Meyer Wolfsheim, Fisher and Clarke are cast as Myrtle and George Wilson. Debicki will play Jordan Baker.

Production on the AUS$120 million ($126 million) feature got underway at Fox Studios Australia on Monday with sound stages and locations in Sydney to be transformed into glittering Jazz Age New York and Long Island. Warner Bros Pictures, which is backing the film, said Luhrmann will "create his own distinctive visual interpretation of the classic story, bringing the period to life in a way that has never been seen before." That includes, according to local reports, shipping in a fleet of vintage cars, for the shoot from Volo Auto Museum in Illinois, including a pair of 1929 Duesenbergs and a 1929 Packard, to be used by DiCaprio's character and rumored to be worth up to $3 million each.

For his part, Luhrmann, who is directing as well as co-writing, co-producing and co-designing through his Bazmark Films shingle, said, "Fitzgerald’s story defies time and geography. The vision and the goal of our remarkable cast and creatives is to do justice to the deftness of Fitzgerald’s telling, and illuminate its big ideas and humanity. This is our challenge and our adventure." "The opportunity to make the film in Australia with the Bazmark creative team is very important to us; the assistance from Screen Australia and the [New South Wales] Government has made that possible," he added.

The feature will reportedly qualify for the Australian government's producer offset that gives a rebate of up to 40% of a features budget on qualifying Australian productions. The NSW state government has provided financing under its enhanced film investment fund. Luhrmann is producing, along with Catherine Martin, Catherine Knapman, Lucy Fisher and Douglas Wick. The executive producers are Barrie M. Osborne and Bruce Berman. Lurhmann has written the screenplay, from F Scott Fitzgerald's novel, with longtime writing partner Craig Pearce, while his collaborator, and wife, Catherine Martin is doing production and costume design. The editors are Jason Ballantine, Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond, and the director of photography is Simon Duggan.

Filming will take place over 17 weeks, with over 400 cast and crew estimated to take part, with another 30 weeks to be spent on post-production, also to be done in Sydney. The film will be distributed in 3D and 2D by Warner Bros. Pictures and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures.

'Gatsby' Extras Casting

The Daily Telegraph reported some further Gatsby casting news yesterday. First, Australian model Alice Burdeu has won a role as an extra. The 23-year-old was the 2007 winner of the television show, Australia's Next Top Model. She will play a party hostess, which is a not a speaking role, but said to be a meaty "featured extra" part. Another model, Laura Gorun, will play a 1920s party girl. If anyone has any further information about extras casting, please feel free to e-mail me!

The Daily Telegraph also chatted to Joel Edgerton on Friday last week and captured the above photo of Edgerton at Fox Studios. Edgerton is sporting a moustache for his role as Tom Buchanan and was quoted as saying: "Everybody is just keen to focus on the work. And it's good to see Fox Studios full and alive ... I've got research materials on every angle of the movie, from crime ... to Yale Football Club. I've been playing polo, we've got reams of music from that [prohibition] era, plus pictures and all sorts of documentaries and stuff. Baz likes to surround you 360 degrees in the world of the movie."

5 September 2011

'Gatsby' Production Underway

According to several Australian news sources, filming of The Great Gatsby began in Sydney today. We have not heard any official news from Bazmark since 17 May 2011, when Bazmark.com posted news of the casting of Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan. Of course, a lot more has happened since then, and fans have relied on various online media sources to keep us up to date.

The Daily Telegraph was one news source that reported the Gatsby shoot began today, and also posted photographs taken last Saturday of Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan working out at Sydney's Bondi Beach. Apparently, "Maguire and Mulligan have been spotted pounding the soft Bondi sand numerous times since arriving in Sydney, with both having set up home in the Eastern Suburbs along with co-star Leonardo DiCaprio." The Daily Mail also featured more images. Meanwhile, news.com.au reported that Leonardo DiCaprio and Joel Edgerton were spotted at Kings Cross last Friday night, making a low-key appearance at Sydney palace Beach Haus.

Preparations at 'Gatsby' Set

Many thanks to the fellow fan who e-mailed me a link to the following news article from The Sydney Morning Herald, which describes the buzz surrounding the production of The Great Gatsby, and features quotes from art director Ian Gracie, the young actress who will play Jordan Baker, Elizabeth Debicki, and of course Baz Luhrmann:

Luhrmann's latest gives a third dimension to great tale of Long Island decadence
The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 September 2011

While the rising dollar has kept Hollywood away, Sydney filmmaking gets its buzz back next week. Baz Luhrmann starts shooting The Great Gatsby, the $120 million-plus drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and a strong Australian cast that includes Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Jack Thompson and Gemma Ward on Monday. The 3D movie breaks a three-year drought since Luhrmann's Australia and X-Men Origins: Wolverine finished at Fox Studios and recalls a time when the Matrix trilogy, Mission: Impossible II and two Star Wars episodes were filmed in the city.

In the adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous novel, DiCaprio plays the golden hero Jay Gatsby, with Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway and Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan. For art director Ian Gracie, who designed the hit film Red Dog, it's ''a huge buzz'' getting the team from Australia and Moulin Rouge together again. ''The best thing about it is when you work on a Baz Luhrmann-Catherine Martin film, the art department becomes paramount,'' he said. ''You become part of the inner family, the inner circle, and it's a very, very, very interesting ride.'' Gracie said it was a similar challenge recreating New York during the Jazz Age to Paris at the turn of the 20th century. ''Trying to recreate any period of time from any part of the world is always difficult,'' he said. ''But Baz has a very strong direction - he knows exactly what he wants - and that makes our life a lot easier.''

Inside the soundstages, the crew has been building Carraway's bungalow, Gatsby's ornate bedroom and a combined garden, terrace, ballroom, map room and hallway from his ''castle'' on Long Island. For Elizabeth Debicki, a 21-year-old who plays Jordan Baker despite graduating from drama school in Victoria only last year, pre-production has been fast-moving and fun. ''I think 'buzzing' is a good word,'' she said. ''There's a sense that everything is just coming together - all the departments - in the last week. It's just so exciting to see it building up. I can't wait to get on there and start actually making it now.'' Is it hard for a young actress to avoid being intimidated while working with some of Hollywood's biggest stars? ''Carey and Leo and Tobey are very involved in making it good - it's very easy to forget who they are and how famous they are because they just seem like other actors working really hard,'' she said. ''They're also lovely people - and Joel and Isla …''

While DiCaprio has attracted intense paparazzi attention, the cast also includes an actor who once won a BBC online poll as the millennium's greatest star of stage or screen. The Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan plays Gatsby's shadowy business partner Wolfsheim. Luhrmann described him as one of the world's great screen legends. ''Over the years, Amitabh's films have made a tremendous impression on my life and work,'' he said. ''His film Sholay was my introduction to Indian cinema.''

With filming running until Christmas, Gatsby is expected to be released in time for Oscars consideration late next year. There will be particular interest in how Luhrmann uses 3D. The director said he was interested in using it to express Fitzgerald's poetry in imagery.''I have been mindful of the modernist approach Fitzgerald took to his writing, being influenced by the motor car, the new invention of flying, employing popular music in the very text of Gatsby … and the influences of modernists James Joyce and Joseph Conrad.''

1 September 2011

Gemma Ward joins cast of 'Gatsby'

It has been widely reported that Australian model, Gemma Ward, has joined the cast of The Great Gatsby. Her role is unconfirmed, but The New York Observer has started a rumour by reporting: "Of the female roles up for grabs, the most prominent may be Catherine, Myrtle Wilson's sister who accompanies Nick Carraway and Tom Buchanan to the party at the McKee's apartment on Fifth Avenue - best known for the moment when Tom clocks Myrtle in the face." At the moment, this is just speculation but, with filming reported to begin as early as next week, I'm sure we will find out if this rumour is true very soon!

Brendan Maclean to play Klipspringer in 'Gatsby'

It has today been revealed that Australian radio presenter, Brendan Maclean, has joined the cast of The Great Gatsby. According to Pedestrian.tv, Maclean has been cast as "soulless Gatsby hanger-on Klipspringer", and he was happy to chat about the casting process:

Triple J's Brendan Maclean Cast In "The Great Gatsby"
Pedestrian.tv, 1 September 2011

The Aussie contingent on Baz Luhrmann's Gatsby adaptation has grown with the addition of an unexpected local talent that you might know for other things besides acting. Joining Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher and model Gemma Ward is triple j presenter, musician and human tweet machine Brendan Maclean, who has been cast as soulless Gatsby hanger-on Klipspringer. We had a quick chat to Brendan about how he was cast and what his experience on set has been like so far.

- Hey Brendan, so what did the casting process involve?
Casting for Gatsby ran over about two months. I saw a lot of huge names walk in and out of the casting office. When I got the call-back I almost vomited when I walked in to find Baz Luhrmann, sitting cooly on the lounge. He didn't have a script so we just improvised a phone call and talked about Australian music for about an hour. The waiting almost did me in, one day I just couldn't bring myself to get out of bed - finally I got an email from Baz, "I hope you'll join us in the role of Klipspringer". I screamed for a little and went to a friend to see if I had read the email correctly before running madly through the street.

- How has your time on set been so far?
We've had a few days on set, everything I'm doing is on Fox. It's a Baz film, so the sets will blow your mind. I'm an attention whore so I'm adoring the costume and make-up women who are truly the most glamorous in the film business. Everyone probably knows now that the big names have arrived; Leonardo, Tobey, Carrie are all darlings. Honestly, Leo is like a big kid. Cheeky, always laughing when things get too serious. You always know when the big three are in because paparazzi line the gates, they're like piranhas. But on set - they go out of their way to just be apart of the cast.

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