Luhrmann Starts Shooting ‘The Great Gatsby’ in Australia

The cast, crew, and cameras are all set for filming Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby.” Production on the 3D version of the novel started earlier this week in Sydney, Australia.

Leonardo DiCaprio (Jay Gatsby), Tobey Maguire (Nick Carraway), Carey Mulligan (Daisy Buchanan), and Isla Fisher (Myrtle Wilson), will be working on the movie in Australia (the book was set in Long Island) for the next 17 weeks. Luhrmann plans to spend an additional 30 weeks in post production before releasing the film sometime in November of 2012. CNN reports that Luhrmann has a $126 million budget to work with, and he’s already working his way through it.

Despite the A-List cast, Luhrmann is also making sure that the film captures the time and place of the novel. For the “The Great Gatsby,” which was set in the 1920s, Luhrmann shipped over a fleet of classic cars from the Volo Auto Museum in Illinois. Two 1929 Duesenbergs and a 1929 Packard, which are both worth nearly $3 million each, were among the cars shipped.

Luhrmann said:

“Fitzgerald’s story defies time and geography. The vision and the goal of our remarkable cast and creatives is to do justice to the deftness of Fitzgerald’s telling, and illuminate its big ideas and humanity. This is our challenge and our adventure.”

Warner Bros. Pictures, which is backing the film, is also enthusiastic about the visuals for the film. Warner Bros. said in a statement:

Luhrmann will “create his own distinctive visual interpretation of the classic story, bringing the period to life in a way that has never been seen before.”

Will Luhrmann be able to capture the beauty of F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novel on film? Does “The Great Gatsby” really need to be in 3D?