For a while now, director Baz Luhrmann has been giving off a “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t” vibe concerning his in development adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby. Luhrmann has now made it official, announcing that the film will begin production in August in Sydney Australia for a 2012 release. It’s an interesting choice of studios, given that since the Australian dollar is strong right now, it will cost Warner Brothers more to make the film there than it would here in the States.
But what is really interesting is that the film will be shot in 3D.
On the surface a character driven drama like The Great Gatsby certainly doesn’t sound like material that lends itself to what we’ve come to expect from a 3D film. Unless Luhrmann has done a rather extensive rewrite of the story, there are no explosions or major action sequences in the book nor are any of the characters cute animated animals or toys. With the possible exception of doing something interesting with the billboard for optomitrist Dr. T. J. Eckleburg and Gatsby standing on dock staring at the green light on the dock across the bay, I can’t think of anything in the book that fits the mold of what we expect from a 3D film.
So does this mean that Luhrmann has something up his sleeve? is it possible that he has some ideas that could rewrite the rules about the use of 3D, making us rethink ideas about picture composition and how it is used? I suppose it is possible, but since I find Luhrmann’s films to be fairly undisciplined and unrestrained messes and I honestly don’t think that he has the ability to do something as innovative as this.
The other possibility of this film being shot in 3D is that studio Warner Brothers has come to accept 3D as the new norm for production, much like sound, color and widescreen processes were in the past. I’m sure it’s not so the studio can charge more at the box office than they would if the film was in standard 2D.
Via Hollywood Reporter.
