Baz Luhrmann has acquired the rights for F. Scott Fitzgerald's pre-Depression masterpiece The Great Gatsby, so he can show us exactly what went wrong with the current economy.
Looking at the gilded butterflies of a golden age coming to a close, The Great Gatsby is regarded as one of the great American novels. The hedonism, materialism and amorality that Fitzgerald explored, draw obvious parallels to the current state of play as we sink into recession after a long period of luxuriant prosperity. Lurhmann says: "People will need an explanation of where we are and where we've been, and 'The Great Gatsby' can provide that explanation."
Feeling a need to administer a wake-up call to the public, he notes: "If you wanted to show a mirror to people that says, 'You've been drunk on money,' they're not going to want to see it. But if you reflected that mirror on another time they'd be willing to."
Luhrmann hopes to develop the project at a personally unprecedented speed to capture the significance of this parallel: "I'm going to move faster than I have before. I'd be surprised if it's another seven years." Undeterred by so-far-so-middling box office returns on Australia, he went on to say that the people needed to take a message of hope from the film.