Movie News: The Great Gatsby

Success is sweet revenge for Baz



Baz mimes his desire to put the critics' cajones in a vice 

If success is the best revenge then Baz Luhrmann’s is proving particularly sweet.

Despite some scathing reviews, his adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has well exceeded expectations raking it in at the international box office; it’s already made $130 million of its $180 million budget back since its release, first in the US on May 10 and has given the likes of Star Trek: Into Darkness and Iron Man 3 some stiff competition.

Who’d have thought a lavish 3D adaptation of an American literary classic could do that hey Baz?

"We’ve got a bona fide literary blockbuster on our hands," Luhrmann told news.com.au today with good reason to crow after the cutting critiques.

"When does that happen?

“It ain't over till it's over, but the numbers are way above expectations."

"It was an extraordinarily big gamble.”

News.com.au reports that Gatsby is Lurhmann’s most successful film released in the US to date having taken $90 million already – Moulin Rouge is his second, it made $57 million stateside.

"I could not be happier......No one saw it coming. Everyone said we were dead. Everyone said we would flop."

In Cannes where Gatsby opened the world's premier film festival in the coveted opening slot last week, Luhrmann took a pragmatic approach to the vicious criticism his films attract.

"The critical fallout is pretty much identical for all my films," he told The Guardian. "It's not just mild disappointment. It's like I've committed a violent, heinous crime against a personal family member."



Lurhmann with his Gatsby cast on the Croisette in Cannes

 And he revealed to The Sydney Morning Herald that the barbs and arrows do hurt when you’re taking a massive gamble like Gatsby.

"I worried for the life of the film," Lurhmann said. "It's like having a child go off to school and the kids are beating them up.

"I feel very responsible for leading everyone from our lead actors to every person in the crew and our financiers down a road and, when the reviews are negative, I worry for those who believed in the project.

"I don't want to see them derided or feel like they've backed the wrong horse."

"Did I worry about the reviews? Yes. Because I thought the child might be beaten to death before it got a chance even to get into the schoolyard."

As he prepares to walk the red carpet tomorrow night alongside stars Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire - Leonardo DiCaprio has pulled out, reportedly to party in Cannes - at Hoyts Entertainment Quarter in Sydney, just a stone’s through from Fox Studios where the film was shot, Lurhmann is clearly basking in proving the critics wrong.

"I could not be happier," he told the SMH. "No one saw it coming. Everyone said we were dead. Everyone said we would flop."

The Great Gatsby opens on May 30. Take a squiz at the trailer below featuring music from Beyonce and Florence Welch.