Great Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann Has Been Hitting the Books

December 29, 2010

By Christine Spines

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Baz Luhrmann isn’t satisfied with telling a one source story– even if that source happens to be what some consider the quintessential great American novel. Instead, the flamboyantly theatrical Australian filmmaker has assembled an exhaustive research library to inform his adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age masterpiece, The Great Gatsby. Intent on making the definitive Gatsby adaptation, Luhrmann has taken a kind of crowd sourcing approach to his research process by inviting fans to weigh in on the selection of literary and cinematic works he’s using to inform the look and content of the film he aims to make “the best interpretation for today.”

Luhrmann’s rallying cry sheds some light on what seems at first glance to be an unlikely marriage of filmmaker to material. At its most elemental level, Gatsby is a doomed loved story. So it’s easy to draw a connection between this adaptation the paradigmatic work of that genre, Romeo and Juliet — the source for Luhrmann’s second film and arguably his most audacious and successful work of post-modern filmmaking. “Romeo + Juliet” starred a young Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as the title lovers who spoke exclusively in Shakespeare’s iambic couplets, but existed in an electric rock n’ roll reality called Verona Beach, which bore a striking resemblance to Miami Beach. Luhrmann’s risky cultural mashup played like a shot of pure cinematic id. It was also the closest young moviegoers had come to understanding the what it might have been like for audiences in Elizabethan England to experience the subversive sexuality and emotional urgency of the Bard’s writing, at its best. So by seeking fans’ ideas for creating today’s ultimate Gatsby, Luhrmann seems to be going for a similar dynamism and vitality in this project. Or at least we can hope.

The most accurate source for a sneak peek into what a Luhrmann-Fitzgerald marriage will look like on film is the collection of research materials listed on director’s website. Below you’ll find our selection — with added context and information — of some of the more interesting titles. Use this space to weigh in on anything that seems out of place, superfluous, or missing from the list. Right off the bat, it seems odd that Tender is the Night didn’t make the cut, especially given that Luhrmann has a special section of materials dedicated to Fitzgerald’s relationship with Zelda and the book’s reputation for having been lifted directly from the dog-days of the couple’s marriage. Now it’s your turn. Fire away.

Trimalchio: An Early Version of ‘The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by James L. West As advertised, this is Fitzgerald’s initial draft of the novel, before he reworked it according to legendary editor Max Perkins’ notes. The principal difference between this version and the Gatsby of record is that here he goes deeper into Nick Carraway’s personal life outside of the Gatsby-Daisy drama. Fun fact: Trimalchio, the novel’s original title, is a reference to the protagonist in Petronious’ The Satyricon, the Roman version of a Gatsby-esque dilettante, an ostentatious new-money man with a wife named — what else? — Fortunata.

The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: A New Collection by Matthew J. Bruccoli Edited by the late professor of American literature at University of South Carolina and preeminent Fitzgerald scholar, this collection offers an exhaustive assembly of Fitzgerald’s shorter pieces, many which initially ran in commercial publications. This book lays to rest any doubts about whether Fitzgerald’s genius translated from long form to short.

Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald This short story collection is not regarded as a showcase for Fitzgerald at his virtuoso best. But it does contain some gems including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the source for David Fincher’s 2008 film starring Brad Pitt and Kate Blanchett.

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald Fitzgerald’s debut novel, about a Princeton graduate of modest means frustrated in life and love as he’s repeatedly denied access to high society, offers an early glimpse at the writer’s lifelong preoccupation with the by-products of the American Dream: self-invention, status and greed.

The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald Fitzgerald’s sophomore novel chronicles the bright-burninng marriage between two Jazz age grandees careening toward self-destruction. This is considered to be the first of several Scott-and-Zelda inspired works.

Sometimes Madness is Wisdom: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald: A Marriage by Kendall Taylor This exhaustively researched account of the mad love that fueled much of Fitzgerald’s later writings offers unique insight into the twisted links between love and chaos, alcoholism and creativity.

The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King, His First Love by James L.W.I West II When scanning the landscape of Fitzgerald’s life for clues into his characters, his first romance with the patrician teenager, Ginevra King, leaps out as fertile territory. Though the relationship was short lived, and was mostly epistolary, its impact on his work was profound. Many Fitzgerald scholars contend that Ginevra was the inspiration for Daisy and other wealthy unattainable sirens of her ilk who turn up throughout Fitzgerald’s oeuvre.

Manhattan Transfer: A Novel by John Dos Passos Best known for his USA Trilogy, here Dos Passos paints a vivid portrait of New York in the 1920′s and the tensions created by the uneasy transition into modern post-industrial life. Dos Passos uses the petrie dish of New York city to explore the impact the era’s newfound social freedoms and prosperity, suddenly accessible to the masses.

Dear Scott/Dear Max by John Kuehl and Jackson R. Bryer, editors This collection of correspondence between Fitzgerald and his longtime editor, Maxwell Perkins, not only offers glimpses at the writer’s relatively pristine unedited copy; the letters also expose Fitzgerald’s moments of triumph and insecurity and how some of the dominant ideas and themes were worked through and distilled in these substantial missives.

Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by Scott A. Berg This definitive biography on the Scribner’s editor — who shaped the work of such literary giants as Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe — explores Perkins’ multiple roles as friend, sounding-board, shrink, and source of inspiration.

Films:

“The Crowd,” directed by King Vidor Released in 1926, this classic of the silent era takes a gritty approach to chronicling the forces of modernity that ultimately lead to the Great Depression. The story follows an upwardly-mobile New York City couple whose life slowly unravels.

“The Great Gatsby” (1949) directed by Elliott Nugent This incarnation of Gatsby, starring Alan Ladd and Betty Field, is actually the second adaptation of novel. No known prints exist of first, a silent film released in 1926.

“The Great Gatsby” (1974), directed by Jack Clayton Francis Ford Coppola adapted the screenplay for this star-studded cinematic version of the novel.

“The Jazz Singer: 80th Anniversary Deluxe Edition,” directed by Alan Crosland This 1927 musical, among the first of the “talkies,” spins a cautionary tale about the dangers of modernity. The coming-of-age story follows the rise, fall, and redemption of a Jewish singer who defies his parents’ expectations to pursue a career as a jazz singer.

“Speedy” (1928), directed by Ted Wilde This classic silent comedy stars Harold Lloyd as a New Yorker who tries to save the last horse-drawn trolley bus in the city.

“Sunrise: The Song of Two Humans” (1927), directed by F. W. Murnau This winner of the first Academy Award, for “Unique and Artistic Production,” is considered to be among the best films ever made. The doomed love story  about a married provincial man who falls for a loose woman from the big city is a fable about the corrosive influence of urbanization. Is anyone else sensing a pattern here?

Tags: Baz Luhrmann, Carey Mulligan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Leonardo DiCaprio, research materials, The Great Gatsby