How Baz Luhrmann turned Sydney into Long Island for his Great Gatsby
Baz Luhrmann's 2013 Great Gatsby was filmed not on Long Island but around Sydney, where a business school played Gatsby's mansion and its palm trees were digitally erased. Critics split over the result, but it earned more than $353 million and won both Oscars it was nominated for.
Fitzgerald's 1925 novel had already reached the screen four times: a 1926 silent version now lost, films in 1949 and 1974, and a TV movie in 2000. Variety reported in December 2008 that Luhrmann would take it on, arguing that the book's critique of careless wealth felt timely. He even workshopped the story in 3D and wobbled briefly in early 2011 about staying on. Sony set the project up at first, but Warner Bros. ended up financing and distributing it.
Leonardo DiCaprio was cast first as Gatsby, reuniting with the director of Romeo + Juliet, and Tobey Maguire, his co-star twice before, became the narrator Nick Carraway. The search for Daisy drew a long list of stars, among them Keira Knightley, Scarlett Johansson and Michelle Williams, before Carey Mulligan read for the part on November 2 in New York. Luhrmann phoned her with the news while she stood on a red carpet, and she cried. Joel Edgerton took Tom after Ben Affleck bowed out for Argo, newcomer Elizabeth Debicki played Jordan, and the Indian star Amitabh Bachchan made his Hollywood debut as Meyer Wolfsheim, working for nothing as a favour.
Luhrmann and co-writer Craig Pearce made several changes. Nick tells the story from a sanitarium to his doctor, Gatsby makes a showy entrance rather than being slowly recognised, some of the novel's racism and antisemitism is softened, and Gatsby dies believing he has won Daisy back.
Cameras rolled at Fox Studios Australia from September 5 to December 22, 2011, on a net budget of $105 million, using Red Epic digital cameras. Balmain stood in for the grim Valley of Ashes, a mansion at The King's School in Parramatta became Daisy's home, and Centennial Park hosted Nick's cottage. Designer Catherine Martin mixed old-money grandeur with Art Deco, modelling Gatsby's house partly on the long-demolished Beacon Towers. Fitzgerald's granddaughter declared that Scott would have been proud, and the film won Oscars for production design and costume design.
Source: The Great Gatsby (2013 film)
