One thing Baz Luhrmann can be sure of when he comes to debut The Great Gatsby in Cannes is that he won't keep everyone happy. Glasses will be pushed up professorial noses, sighs will be sighed and subtext dragged screaming into the open as the literati muse on how well the director has captured F. Scott Fitzgerald's great novel and its masterly prose. Luhrmann, though, could give a XXXX for any of that - he's doing it his way. The movie's new trailer, via Heat, shows how: with visuals, romance and bold musical picks.
First thing to note is that music. Like Romeo + Juliet, Luhrmann has opted for contemporary musical picks, arguing that he's following the author down a path of pop innovation. “Fitzgerald described contemporary music in his books,” he points out. “People would say, ‘Why have you put all this silly jazz pop music in there?’"
Nothing silly about a musical line-up that's been overseen by Jay-Z and includes Mrs Z - Beyoncé - André 3000, Lana Del Rey and Florence And The Machine. The 'green light' track towards the end of the piece indicates that the text has been a guiding influence for the score as well as the movie.
There's are some new posters too, leading with Leonardo DiCaprio's lovelorn, enigmatic Midwesterner Jay Gatsby, whose undying adoration for the willowy Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan) drives the story.
The Great Gatsby opens the Cannes Film Festival on May 15 before lindy-hopping into UK cinemas a day later, all in eye-popping, Doctor Eckleburg-mimicking 3D. Watch the first trailer here.