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‘Great Gatsby’ trailer: Jazz Age excess with a hip-hop flourish

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.

The first trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s star-studded adaptation of ‘The Great Gatsby’ has been released, and it features many of the Australian filmmaker’s hallmarks, including spectacular visuals (the film will be in 3-D), modern music in an anachronistic setting and a lead performance by Leonardo DiCaprio.

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The trailer opens with a voice-over setting the scene (‘New York, 1922’) and a Jay-Z and Kanye West song setting the mood (‘No Church in the Wild,’ from the duo’s ‘Watch the Throne’ album). The Roaring ‘20s are in full swing, with flappers in sparkling dresses and gents in sharp tuxedos spilling champagne and dancing under falling confetti.

A quick montage of people asking about DiCaprio’s mysterious title character sets up one of the story’s central questions: Who is Jay Gatsby? Among those who want to know are Tobey Maguire, playing Nick Carraway (the book’s narrator); and Carey Mulligan, playing Gatsby’s star-crossed love interest Daisy Buchanan.

Other actors glimpsed in the trailer include Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan as the shady businessman Meyer Wolfsheim, Australian actor Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan (Daisy’s husband) and newcomer Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker (Nick’s love interest).

Luhrmann’s eye for visual flair seems well-suited to the gilded glamour of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, and fans of the book will recognize a few landmarks, including Gatsby’s well-manicured lawn, a ‘valley of ashes’ and an ophthalmologist’s billboard.

View the full trailer below.

For the record, 10:30 p.m. May 23: A previous version of this post referred to Tom Buchanan as Daisy’s wife instead of Daisy’s husband, and described the voice over as being by DiCaprio. It is by Maguire.

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