Oh Gawd No, No, No

July 24, 2011 | Posted in Miscellany | | 20 Comments ↓

Carey Mulligan On ‘The Great Gatsby’: Actress Reveals Intense Fitzgerald Research

 

When you’re adapting to the big screen what many consider to be the Great American Novel — and doing it in 3D, no less — there is going to be heightened scrutiny about every choice you make. From plot to dialogue to aesthetics, a demanding public will insist on the utmost of authenticity.

Good to know, then, that Carey Mulligan and company are making sure they’re well-prepared for the task.

Mulligan plays Daisy Buchanan in the upcoming Baz Luhrmann-directed epic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” which will feature Leonardo DiCaprio as the titular, mysterious millionaire; Tobey Maguire as narrator/protagonist Nick Carraway; Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan; Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson; and newcomer Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker.

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Mulligan will next be seen in the critically acclaimed B-style actioner “Drive,” with Ryan Gosling, Christina Hendricks and Albert Brooks.

 

20 comments on “Oh Gawd No, No, No”

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  2. fuster wrote:

    No? What could be better than to enlist the incredible acting skills of Leonardo DeCaprio as GatsbY?

    Nuclear destruction of all major population centers worldwide comes to mind. And I say that as kind of a DiCaprio fan.

    Reply

  4. @ fuster:
    Never sat through all of GONY – watched pieces I didn’t find compelling enough, though were memorable for scenic detail. What he did worked well enough for me in BODY OF LIES, BLOOD DIAMOND, THE DEPARTED, INCEPTION, and TITANIC. Never saw several other of his big films. Am not saying he’s my absofave, that I want to have his baby, that I’d go see a movie just cuz he’s in it.

    I’d rather see Gatsby played by the Great Dane from MARMADUKE.

    Reply

  5. Gangs shoiulda been a contender.

    Scorsese raises the question of whether there was a Catholic (r)evolution in the country.

    Reply

  6. Baz Luhrmann, that partially explains some of the deranged casting, he cast Leo and Danes, in his ‘hip hop’ Romeo and Juliet,’ with mixed results, he was behind Moulin Rouge, so he’s ok with period pieces, but I can’t see this ending well.

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  7. I’d say on balance that Luhrmann’s pretty horrible. The kitsch-hop approach was a little more justifiable for R+J cuz it’s about young love. MR was, I thought, nauseating. AUSTRALIA kind of worked in a self-consciously old-fashioned and unpretentious way. Don’t know why Michael Bay or Jon Favreau isn’t trying THE GREAT GATSBY instead. Then Zach Snyder could try LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT.

    On the other hand, I confess I might be kind of interested if James Cameron tried MOBY DICK.

    Reply

  8. CK MacLeod wrote:

    I’d rather see Gatsby played by the Great Dane from MARMADUKE.

    Hilarious idea.
    CK MacLeod wrote:

    MR was, I thought, nauseating

    Any movie that starts with “Nature Boy” can’t be “nauseating.”

    Reply

  9. CK MacLeod wrote:

    On the other hand, I confess I might be kind of interested if James Cameron tried MOBY DICK.

    Agree. But going past Cameron, it would be really cool with some light-box literary visuals. “Call me Ishmael”–scribed across the first scene and such.

    Reply

  10. Scott Miller wrote:

    Any movie that starts with “Nature Boy” can’t be “nauseating.”

    Sure it can. Nausea tends to be cumulative, and the whole approach of MR was to take something that might stand alright on its own (a passage from a silly love song) and cram it together with something similar (another passage), then add more, and more – and not all of it great – though there were also peak moments, gloop stacked on crud stacked on bleh, that were also nausea-inducing in themselves.

    Reply

  11. @ Scott Miller:
    Yes, but what I wouldn’t trust is Cameron’s willingness to let the literary dominate the cinematic at any point. Very high odds he’d junk most of the dialogue in favor of something that sounded kind of old…

    “Do the Heavens yet hate thee that thou canst not go mad? In no paradise myself I am impatient at all misery of others that is not mad.”

    would probably turn into

    “I’ve got my own problems.”

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  12. Merchant Ivory doesn’t really seem in the biz anymore, is there any other director that does period pieces anymore, considering GONY and
    the Aviator, I would say Scorsese, since it does have a mob subtext.

    Reply

  13. @ CK MacLeod:
    That’s what I was thinking in respect to Cameron. It would probably be an insurmountable problem. I agree with Miggs about Scorsese. He’s done well with period stuff. If you could make them co-direct, that might work. I’d love to see the movie about the making of a movie with those two control freaks having to collaborate. It would be like Herzog and Kinski. Did you ever see the movie about My Best Friend? I’ll post this YouTube of Herzog saying the Indians during the Fitzcarraldo shoot wanted to kill Kinski. I remembered in a more funny light, with Herzog first saying that the Indians didn’t even have a word for homicide because they never killed each other. But in Kinski’s case they would make an exception:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4uE5F0WXic&feature=related

    Reply

  14. It’s just seems it can go horribly wrong like that Python sketch of Sam Peckinpah doing a bloody period piece

    Reply

  16. To make room for sci-fi inclusion as “period piece,” you could define it as any film that requires contemporary objects and images that are historically or futuristically anachronistic to be omitted from shots. But I think the common interpretation would just be the way Miggs is using it, which has to do with historical periods. You know what he means.

    Reply

  17. Well, yes, that’s the common interpretation. The sci-fi thing was just a throw-in, though it does illustrated a related point. The larger point was that, unless you have a very narrow definition of “period piece” (and I’m not sure what the definition would be), “period” is one of the things the movies love to do.

    Reply

  19. Well Gatsby was about a particular date and time, the early 20’s boom I wasn’t terribly impressed with the Redford version, although there are some parallels with other eras, Nelson Demilles’ Gold Coast, was originally an attempt to update it, to the 1980s.

    Reply

  20. It occurs to me, that Jon Hamm, TV’s Don Draper, could pull off a Gatsby character, that same murky history, a brief war record,

    Reply
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