Despite seemingly ever-shifting claims about Baz Luhrmann’s planned 3D version of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (he’s workshopping actors! He’s shooting in Sydney! He’s not really making it a priority!) the film definitely still seems to be simmering healthily away on his development front burner. And now Ben Affleck is in talks to play Tom Buchanan.
If he signs on, Affleck will be Tom to Carey Mulligan’s Daisy Buchanan, a rich couple who fill their idle days with parties and affairs (at least, in Tom’s case). We’re introduced to them and their mysterious, equally wealthy neighbour Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) by the story’s narrator, Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), who watches the various characters interact as tragedy strikes.
Affleck will need to juggle his scheduleas he’s preparing to direct Argo, chronicling how the CIA used a fake science fiction pic to rescue American citizens from the occupied US embassy in Iran in 1979.
Luhrmann is now busy looking at actors to play other key roles in the film, including Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s ill-fated mistress and her petrol station owner George, who reacts badly when he learns she’s been seeing someone behind his back. With a script he co-wrote alongside regular collaborator Craig Pearce in hand, the director plans to kick off shooting some time this year. At least, that’s the plan for now…