Ben who? Yes, after Affleck was unable to take up the part of Tom Buchanan in Baz Lurhmann's new planned version of The Great Gatsby due to scheduling conflicts, the Australian director has found someone else to fill the role: Joel Edgerton.
Edgerton’s name has come up for a fair share of plum roles recently, including the lead in The Bourne Legacy that eventually to Jeremy Renner.
He joins a cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio as the enigmatic, troubled Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as associate/narrator Nick Carraway, Carey Mulligan as wealthy, bored socialite Daisy Buchannan (AKA Tom’s wife) and Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson, the woman with whom Tom is having an affair. And Aussie newcomer Elizabeth Debicki will be Jordan Baker, the female golfer who takes a liking to Carraway. The only major role still to be filled is that of George Wilson, the garage owner husband to Myrtle.
"In casting Tom one had to find an actor who could credibly be (as Fitzgerald describes him) 'one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven,' had five-star acting chops and in the big dramatic showdown scenes between Gatsby and Tom, hold the screen against Leonardo DiCaprio, in the appropriate age group,” Luhrmann tells Deadline. “Any wonder, it has been a long and thorough journey. The simple truth is that Joel came into our rehearsal space in New York and fulfilled all of the above criteria, and then some."
With filming in 3D set to start in August for Fox Studios Australia and other locations on the continent, The Great Gatsby should arrive later next year.