Jay-Z and singer, songwriter, producer Jeymes Samuel aka The Bullitts are confirmed for the score of Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming extravaganza, The Great Gatsby .
A lush May trailer that featured Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Church in the Wild” from their joint effort Watch The Throne , should have been the red flag for the direction Luhrmann was going in, and now it’s come to pass.
After earlier rumors that Prince and Lady Gaga were in the frame as musical contributors, Samuel delightedly tweeted the big news yesterday, writing:
“Jay-Z and myself have been working tirelessly on the score for the upcoming #CLASSIC The Great Gatsby! It is too DOPE for words!”
The Film Stage reveals that Jay-Z’s music has never been far from Luhrmann’s mind for his fifth film and was played as motivation/inspiration during production.
They note that Craig Armstrong is currently credited as composer, so it’s possible the soundtrack will feature a combination of all three.
But from the tone of Samuel’s tweet, it’s not at all fanciful to assume that he and Hov will have a major — if not — exclusive role on The Great Gatsby’s score. Or is it?
Going forward, if Jay-Z and Samuel are scoring the entire musical drop for US novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, it’s a great fit. The Great Gatsby’s titular hero, Jay Gatsby, a 1920’s high rolling, mysterious mogul meshes perfectly with the meta-text of Jay-Z’s public persona.
And Luhrmann, of course, is no stranger to mixing contemporary sounds with classical subjects.
Collider notes the Australian director’s decision to draft in Radiohead and Stina Nordenstam (among others) on the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack, and Madonna, Bowie, and Nirvana for Moulin Rouge!
Directed by Luhrmann with the screenplay co-written with Craig Pearce, this latest adaptation stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Tobey Maguire, Amitabh Bachchan, Isla Fisher, and Jacek Koman.
The Great Gatsby (3D) hits UK theaters on May 17 and the US on May 10, 2013. Check out the December trailer below.
