Who the heck knows when Baz Luhrmann will quit his "research" and finally start putting his star-studded take on
The Great Gatsby together. He already has the principle cast mostly squared away. Carey Mulligan will play the vivacious and vapid Daisy Buchanan; Leonardo Dicaprio and Tobey Maguire have been attached to the respective roles of Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway since the beginning. Last month
Bradly Cooper made a personal plea to have a chance at playing Daisy's cheating, scumball husband, Tom Buchanan. I thought it'd be an inspired choice, but Luhrmann apparently is thinking differently.
Deadline reports
that Ben Affleck is now in talks for the role, assuming he can fit it into his schedule. He's currently readying his next film,
Argo, about the Iran Hostage Crisis. Gatsby is tentatively set to start shooting in August in Australia. Bruce Dern played Buchanan in the 1974 adaptation, which featured Mia Farrow and Robert Redford.
I liked the idea of casting Cooper a lot, but Affleck is an even better choice. I think he'll be able to project the darkness of an elitist playboy more convincingly. Is that cast phenomenal or what?
