Scintillating trailer for Baz Luhrmann's much-hyped Great Gatsby released

It has been claimed that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s major contribution to literature was that by dint of The Great Gatsby nobody else could ever write a good party scene. While that is obviously a reductive theory, it’s certainly true that Gatsby’s sparkling soirees on his blue lawn stick long in the memory after reading his most iconic work, decadent, delicious and intoxicating in both senses of the word. With this in mind, it seems apt that Baz Luhrmann is taking on the tale – he proved in Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge that he does surreally-tinged glitz and glamour better than anyone. And he also showed with his much-heralded Shakespeare that he isn’t afraid to take on big, popular stories that people are hugely emotionally invested in. He’ll need that confidence for Gatsby, even with a cast including Leonardo di Caprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Macguire and Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan.

But even with all those caveats this trailer looks very promising. It’s clearly going to be big, bold and beautiful. It better not be a letdown, or else Baz may be back to doing weird things like this.