In June 2011, Jason Clarke was cast as George B. Wilson. Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan appears as Meyer Wolfshiem in his first Hollywood role. Bachchan worked for free, as a favor to Luhrmann.
Screenplay
The screenplay by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce made five notable changes to the novel’s plot: Nick Carraway writes from a sanitarium, having checked himself in some time after the summer with Gatsby; he flirts with Jordan Baker but, unlike what happens in the novel, he’s “too smitten with Gatsby to notice her”; Gatsby himself makes a grand entrance, whereas in the novel some time passes as they talk before Carraway realizes who he is; some of the racism or antisemitism has been toned down or removed; finally, Gatsby dies thinking his pursuit of Daisy was successful.
Filming
Principal photography was shot in Sydney. Filming began on September 5, 2011, at Fox Studios Australia and finished on December 22, 2011, with additional shots filmed in January 2012. The film was shot with Red Epic digital cameras and Zeiss Ultra Prime lenses. The “Valley of Ashes”, the desolate land located between West Egg and New York was shot in Balmain, New South Wales.
Manly Business School in Manly, New South Wales—known as Saint Patrick’s Seminary—doubled as Gatsby’s mansion. Palm trees had to be digitally removed in post-production to convey a faithfulness to the Long Island setting. Nick’s house was located in Centennial Park. Daisy’s house was Gowan Brae, a historic mansion at The King’s School, Parramatta.
Sets
In creating the background scenery for the world depicted in the film, designer Catherine Martin stated that the team styled the interior sets of Jay Gatsby’s mansion with gilded opulence in a style that blended establishment taste with Art Deco. The long-destroyed Beacon Towers, thought by scholars to have partially inspired Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby estate, was used as a main inspiration for Gatsby’s home in the film.
The location used to film the exterior of Jay Gatsby’s mansion was the college building of the International College of Management, Sydney. Some inspiration was also drawn from other Gold Coast, Long Island, mansions, including Oheka Castle and La Selva Mansion. Features evoking the Long Island mansions were added in post-production.
The inspiration for the film version of the Buchanan estate came from Old Westbury Gardens in Old Westbury, New York. The mansion exterior was built on a soundstage, with digital enhancements added. The interior sets for the Buchanan mansion were inspired by the style of Hollywood Regency.
The home of Nick Carraway was conceived as an intimate cottage, in contrast with the grandeur of the neighboring Gatsby mansion. Objects chosen adhered to a central theme of what the designers saw as classic Long Island. The architecture conjures American Arts and Crafts, with Gustav Stickley-type furnishings inside and an Adirondack-style swing out.
The opening scene was filmed from Rivendell Child, Adolescent and Family Unit in Concord, Sydney, only a few kilometers from Sydney 2000 Olympic Stadium.
Costumes
Costume designer Catherine Martin approached many apparel designers to craft the film’s costumes. In conjunction with Miuccia Prada, Martin achieved the iconic 1920s look by altering pieces from the Prada and Miu Miu fashion archives. Many of the fashions from archives were concepts from runways and fashion magazines that were never worn by women in real life.
Martin and Prada worked closely together to create pieces with “the European flair that was emerging amongst the aristocratic East Coast crowds in the Twenties”. Martin worked with Brooks Brothers for the costumes worn by the male cast members and extras. Tiffany & Co. provided the jewelry for the film.
Costume historians, however, noted that the costumes were inauthentic as Martin and Prada modernized the 1920s-era fashions to resemble 2010s fashions. Most prominently, the women were clothed to emphasize their breasts, such as Daisy’s push-up bra, in contrast to the flat-chested fashions of the era.
Martin admitted that she took the styles of the 1920s and made them sexier for a modern audience. “If you look at the fashion illustrations, as opposed to what actually ended up being made, you will see that the ’20s were all about sex,” Martin stated in a Collector’s Weekly interview. “It was the first time that women basically wore no undergarments and not even a garter belt.”
Alice Jurow of the Art Deco Society observed that the film’s highly stylized costume designs reflected contemporary audiences’ inaccurate expectations and misconceptions of 1922 fashions. “When people say ‘the Gatsby era,’ there’s definitely a mid-’20s concept that comes to mind, with the shorter skirts and the real archetypal flapper look,” explained Jurow. “But 1922, it was the Jazz Age in terms of music, but the fashions hadn’t quite caught up yet.
The skirts were still mid-calf, even approaching ankle length. Clothes were a little more graceful and ornate and flowy. People would be startled and disturbed if anybody actually did real 1922 fashion in the production of Great Gatsby. It’s just not how we picture those characters.”
Release and marketing
Originally scheduled for a December 25, 2012 release, on August 6, 2012, it was reported that the film was being moved to a summer 2013 release date. In September 2012, this date was confirmed to be May 10, 2013. The film opened the 66th Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 2013, shortly following its wide release in RealD 3D and 2D formats.
The first trailer for The Great Gatsby was released on May 22, 2012, almost a year before the film’s release. Songs featured in various trailers include: “No Church in the Wild” by Jay-Z and Kanye West; a cover of U2’s “Love Is Blindness” performed by Jack White; a cover of The Turtles’ “Happy Together” by the band Filter; a cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” performed by André 3000 and Beyoncé; “Young and Beautiful” performed by Lana Del Rey; and two songs, “Bedroom Hymns” and “Over the Love”, performed by Florence and the Machine.
On April 15, 2013, Brooks Brothers premiered “The Gatsby Collection”, a line of men’s clothing, shoes and accessories “inspired by the costumes designed by Catherine Martin for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby”. According to Fashion Weekly, “The looks weren’t simply based on 1920s style: the new duds were designed based on the brand’s actual archives […] Brooks Brothers was one of the initial arbiters of Gatsby-era look. The actual costumes, designed by Catherine Martin, will be on display in select Brooks Brothers boutiques.”
On April 17, 2013, Tiffany & Co. unveiled windows at its Fifth Avenue flagship store “inspired by” Luhrmann’s film and created in collaboration with Luhrmann and costumer Catherine Martin. The jewelry store also premiered “The Great Gatsby Collection” line of jewelry designed in anticipation of the film. The collection comprises 7 pieces: a brooch, a headpiece (both reportedly based on archival Tiffany designs), a necklace and four different rings, including one in platinum with a 5.25-carat diamond, priced at US$875,000.
Soundtrack
Released on May 7, the film’s soundtrack is also available in a deluxe edition; a Target exclusive release also features three extra tracks. The film’s songs were executive-produced by Jay-Z and The Bullitts.
Penned by Lana Del Rey and the film’s director, Baz Luhrmann, the song “Young and Beautiful” was released to contemporary hit radio as a single, and was used as the film’s buzz single.
A snippet of the track appeared in the official trailer for the film and played during the scene where the characters portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan express their romantic feelings for one another. Hip hop magazine Rap-Up called the single “haunting”, while MTV called it “somber-sounding”.
The track performed by Florence and the Machine, “Over the Love”, references the “green light” symbol from the novel in its lyrics. Chris Payne of Billboard praised Beyoncé and André 3000’s cover of “Back to Black”, made unique with a downtempo EDM wobble. The xx recorded “Together” for the film, with Jamie Smith telling MTV that the band’s contribution to the soundtrack sounds like “despair”, and revealing that it utilizes a 60-piece orchestra.
Speaking of his goals for the movie’s musical backdrop, Baz Luhrmann expressed his desire to blend the music of the Jazz Age, associated with the 1922 setting of the story, with a modern spin. Much like his modern twists applied in Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet, Baz uses the movie’s music not as a background, but instead prominently in the foreground, which takes on a character of its own.
Reception
Box office
The Great Gatsby Grossed $144.8 million in North America, and $208.8 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $353.6 million. Calculating in all expenses, Deadline Hollywood estimate that the film made a profit of $58.6 million.
In North America, The Great Gatsby earned US$19.4 million on its opening Friday, including US$3.25 million from Thursday night and midnight shows. It went on to finish in second place, behind Iron Man 3, during its opening weekend, with US$51.1 million.
This was the sixth-largest opening weekend for a film that did not debut in first place, the second-largest opening weekend for a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio behind Inception, and Luhrmann’s highest-grossing movie.
Critical response
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 48% based on 304 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website’s critical consensus reads, “While certainly ambitious—and every bit as visually dazzling as one might expect—Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby emphasizes visual splendor at the expense of its source material’s vibrant heart.” Metacritic gives the film a score of 55 out of 100, based on
