The Baz Luhrmann-directed drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio will kick off the annual film festival May 15 in the south of France.
- Mar 12, 2013
AceShowbiz - "The Great Gatsby" is set to open the 66th edition of Cannes Film Festival. Organizers said early Tuesday, March 12 local time that the romantic drama movie would screen in 3D on May 15 at the Grand Theatre Lumiere of the Palais des Festivals, out of competition as part of the Official Selection.
"It is a great honor for all those who have worked on 'The Great Gatsby' to open the Cannes Film Festival," said director Baz Luhrmann in a statement. "We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts."
He continued, "...not only because my first film, Strictly Ballroom, was screened there 21 years ago, but also because F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of the most poignant and beautiful passages of his extraordinary novel just a short distance away at a villa outside St. Raphael."
This year's Cannes Film Festival will run May 15-26. Academy Award-wining director Steven Spielberg has been chosen as the jury president of the famous annual festival.
"The Great Gatsby" is adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of the same name. Set in 1992's New York City, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings, it stars Tobey Maguire as would-be writer Nick Carraway who chases his own American Dream.
Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan), and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits.
The movie was filmed in Australia and has been pushed back from its original December 25, 2012 release date to May 10. Jay-Z, who scored the movie, is set to attend the movie premiere at Cannes, organizers said.
