F. Scott Razmatazz

Baz Luhrman‘s The Great Gatsby will open the 66th Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, May 15. Somebody tell me why this is a big deal with the adaptation of F. Scott Fitsgerald‘s novel opening in the States on May 10th. The 3D film will screen for the press on Wednesday morning followed by a press conference with Baz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher and Jason Clarke probably taking part. Gatsby was originally slated to open last year but Warner Bros. yanked it. I don’t believe that concerns over DiCaprio having a costarring role in Django Unchained, which opened last December, had much to do with WB’s decision.

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  • http://twitter.com/HighSierraMan Steven Gaydos

    This is the ultimate test of Cannes as international press op because it already has created an insider intelligentsia buzz that isn’t as rosy as anyone who’s invested in the film would reasonably desire.

  • Trimmer

    FLASH FORWARD TO CANNES PRESS CONFERENCE.

    French interpréter translating Jeff’s question: “Il a demandé si quelqu’un avait de l’argent pour le parcmètre.”

  • http://www.facebook.com/jesse.crall.3 Jesse Crall

    Does this announcement lend any credence to Warner’s statement about loving Gatsby so much they want to maximize its box office with a later release?

  • Raising_Kaned

    Following in the grand tradition of The Fifth Element…

    Actually, I can only hope TGG is that entertaining.

  • DougW

    As Isla Fisher pointed out, “Gatsby” takes place in summer, so it’s a better time to release it than last winter.

  • http://twitter.com/TVMCCA Terry McCarty

    Still remembering the dubious buzz on SHUTTER ISLAND when its release was delayed.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001743743888 Abdul Basit
  • ThatGuy

    For whatever it’s worth…

    I saw this on Brian Duffield’s twitter feed about two weeks ago. He’s the screenwriter on Lynne Ramsay’s latest movie.

    Hearing insanely great things about GATSBY. 2013′s feeling like the year craziness pays off creatively big time.

    https://twitter.com/BrianDuffield/status/306963951349014530

  • IRRITABLE BOWEL CINEMA

    Somethings are not easily understood.

  • Joshsleeps

    This is a fairly typical opening film. The last several years, the opening night film has been a summer release a few weeks out from opening, usually a blockbuster with awards potential or an arthouse film with crossover potential. Look at the previous years: Moonrise Kingdom, Midnight in Paris, Robin Hood, Up.

    • Joshsleeps

      Also, let’s not forget the goddamn Da Vinci Code or Star Wars Episode III.

      • Sonny Hooper

        I think Jeff’s point is that it will open in theatres before premiering at Cannes.

        • Joshsleeps

          Totally. But 3 of the 5 films I listed also opened before premiering at Cannes.

          • Joshsleeps

            3 of the 6 films.*

          • ThatGuy

            According to Google, none of the films you listed opened before premiering at Cannes.

          • Joshsleeps

            Shit, you’re almost right. I misspoke/misread my dates, with the exception of Robin Hood, which DID open several days before premiering at Cannes.

          • ThatGuy

            Nope.

            Robin Hood premiered in Cannes on May 12 and then opened in the US on May 14.

          • Joshsleeps

            Well, you’re half-right and I’m half-wrong. It actually opened in 12 countries on May 12, admittedly the same day as the Cannes premiere. The U.S. got it later, but the fact that it was being watched and reviewed around the world before it actually played Opening Night serves my larger point, which is that Opening Night was not its world premiere. Still, the amount of misinformation I regurgitated for this thread in previous posts is embarrassing. Apologies.

  • http://twitter.com/HighSierraMan Steven Gaydos

    Thnx for reminding about Da Vinci. Worst buzz ever coming out of Cannes and was HUGE blockbuster.

  • jermsguy

    A while back Jeff dropped a blind item of a movie that had been pushed out of a Nov/Dec release to 2013, where he’d heard it was a monstrous failure. Wasn’t it Gatsby?

    • TheAngryInternet

      Can’t say I remember this…he heard something about a late 2012 film that was supposed to be awful, but there was no mention of a delay (Gatsby had already been pushed to 2013 at that point), and the film Jeff was talking about supposedly involved multiple Oscar winners, which doesn’t really describe Gatsby. Even in retrospect I don’t know what he was talking about.

      • ThatGuy

        I wasn’t going to bother responding to jermsguy, because he was just trolling(at the time, Wells specifically mentioned he WASN’T talking about Gatsby or ANY December release), but since you did…

        The hubub started on Jeff’s Oscar podcast last year, just before the start of the Telluride, Venice, and Toronto film festivals. He mentioned to Sasha Stone that a source told him that there was going to be a major turkey playing at one of those festivals. Jeff ended up revealing it was playing at Toronto. And if you listened carefully, he accidentally revealed who his source was: a Telluride fest programmer.

        The turkey he was referring to was Cloud Atlas, starring your Oscar-winning cast(Tom Hanks and Halle Berry). And there were rumors going around at the time that Cloud Atlas tried to get into Telluride, but was rejected because the Telluride people absolutely hated it. So there you go.