Director Baz Luhrmann looks to be quietly gearing up to for his next major move with three projects evidently contending to be his follow up to the 2008 disappointment “Australia,” with production on one to potentially get underway as soon as next year.
Currently pursuing art projects in Asia with fellow Australian artist Vincent Fantauzzo, the director recently told Asian media of his multiple options but remained hush on any details. Clues of the three projects were, however, provided through a charity auction which saw Luhrmann and partner Catherine Martin put up the opportunity to be an extra in his next venture.
The auction excitingly details that the director “intends to shoot a new motion picture no earlier than 2011, and is currently coming to a determination about whether it will be a historical epic, a major musical work, or a literary adaptation.”
The literary adaptation is obviously Luhrmann’s previously announced work on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby,” which he purchased the rights to in late 2008. Since then, updates on the adaptation have been few and far between with the only mention coming in February of this year where he noted that, despite interest in a Bollywood movie, “for now I am going to be busy with ‘The Great Gatsby’. I have acquired the rights of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book. I hope I will be able to recreate the pre-Depression era.”
On the “historical epic” front, the contenders are probably the leftovers from Luhrmann’s planned trilogy of epics which he began working on after his Red Curtain Trilogy ended with “Moulin Rouge!” The run of epics was set to begin with his “Alexander The Great” film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman on which he “was collaborating with DreamWorks and Steven Spielberg. We were looking at sets around the world and studios were built in Northern Africa and Thailand. It got a long way down the road but for various reasons, not just because of the competing project [Oliver Stone’s version starring Angelina Jolie and Colin Farrell], we walked away from it.”
While it’s only been a few years since that debacle, Luhrmann did seemingly leave the door open for a return when speaking to the Guardian in 2008, as unlikely as it seems. “I stupidly said I’d make a trilogy of epics. If I ever do work again, I’ll probably do something short and pop and very immediate before I leapfrog into a larger work. Just because you need a change of pace. But those larger works are definitely there and I’m definitely trying to develop them.”
The other epic is a Russian film once described as being in the vein of David Lean’s “Doctor Zhivago.” For the most part, Luhrmann has remain tight-lipped throughout the years on finer details but once described the trilogy of epics as films whose “DNA belongs more to ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ than it does to musical language. Its DNA comes from quite classical storytelling, quite classical cinema.” That was clearly evident with “Australia” although, on that occasion, it went too far and played out too bluntly. A second bite of apple in a foreign environment like Russia could have the potential to the do the trick.
The contenders for his “major musical,” meanwhile, are much more expansive. For one, Luhrmann recently met with “Slumdog Millionaire” composer A.R. Rahman about a potential project with the two — who first came in contact during the production of “Moulin Rouge!”; a film which boasts heavy Bollywood influence — looking “to create the right piece, for the right story so that it can be told well” and fulfill Luhrmann’s “dream to make a movie in India.”
The director is also apparently interested in teaming Hugh Jackman and Beyonce together in a musical after their work on the 2009 Academy Awards. “One can only pray ,” Luhrmann told Vogue. “My mind is racing already… I’m sure that there is a dramatic cinematic life for her. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen that kind of performer, like Barbara Streisand and Diana Ross, on the screen.”
A theatre director at heart, there’s probably also a plethora of productions Luhrmann would love to bring to the silver screen as well with Giacomo Puccini’s “La bohème” and Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” two of his already acclaimed works on stage.
Speculation aside, it’s good to hear Luhrmann will be back behind the camera sooner rather than later. We’d almost suggest that the musical would be his safest option after the acclaim from “Moulin Rouge!” though that now dates nearly 10 years ago; would a musical, even if by Luhrmann, work in this climate? Look what happened to Rob Marshall last year with “Nine.” The Russian epic would be the most ambitious out of the lot and we’d would love to see him attempt it but fear it could be disastrous.
That brings us to “The Great Gatsby” which would have to be the front-runner at this stage being the project most recently discussed the director. The great American novel has already seen multiple adaptations — including Jack Clayton’s 1974 Francis Ford Coppola-scribed version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow — fits the remake culture of today, has a built-in audience and would seemingly be an easy sell for financiers and studios alike. And, of course, throw in DiCaprio as Gatsby and it’s surely good to go.
