News (that I care about): a potential "Great Gatsby" cast

While doing my routinely check on Cinematical for movie news, I saw this news about a possible remake of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby". It's a book that has constantly been used to define "the American Dream" and a portion of high school English class. In other words, it's a classic in all sense of the word and definitely one of my favorite books I read in high school. It has been made into a film twice before, once in 1926 and then again in 1974 with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow and written by Francis Ford Coppola.

Now the news is that Baz Luhrmaan ("Romeo + Juliet", "Moulin Rouge!", "Australia") is seeking to direct with a rumored cast of Leonardo Dicaprio (because he's in everything), Toby Maguire, and Amanda Seyfried. Obviously, Dicaprio  would be playing the titular Jay Gatsby while Maguire is the shy but curious Nick and Seyfried is the ditsy, naive Daisy.

It's a big stretch to see a guy like Luhrmaan take on a classic that is a clean cut drama with not many quirks. If you are familiar at all with Luhrmaan's movies, you know he has a lot of quirky moments with characters that are just so odd and weird and demonstrate the kind of behavior you'd expect from the drama kids at your high school."Gatsby" is really nothing like that. I can see all the actors fitting into their roles. We all know Dicaprio can be classy but also very anxious/angry/desperate which fits well for Gatsby. Maguire can do the shy but well meaning as seen in a little movie called "Spiderman". I'm not too familar with Seyfried although I'd say she could definitely look the part of a rich, air-head blond from the1920's with a little makeup and costume change.

But Luhrmaan? Definitely not my first choice. I'd say Sam Mendes who's definitely shown he can do period pieces well with "Road to Perdition" and "Revolutionary Road". Each also shows his great sense of drama from the subtle to the extreme. I guess we'll just have to see about this since it's still a "rumor", but I wouldn't mind seeing an updated version of this.