Baz Luhrmann Prepping 'The Great Gatsby' With Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire And Amanda Seyfried?

To answer my own question: yes and, quite possibly, no. We've known for some time that a new version of The Great Gatsby was on Baz Luhrmann's plate, along with a couple of other pictures like a historical epic, another musical, possibly with Slumdog Millionaire score composer A.R. Rahmann.

Now Mr. Luhrmann says he's got scripts for both Gatsby and the musical set to go, and will be deciding between them over the next six weeks. Rumored casting for Gatsby is pretty serious: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Amanda Seyfried.

The casting rumor list comes via Production Weekly, while MTV talked to the director at the premiere of The Social Network. He said,

I've got two [pictures] going. One is a musical and one is a period work, both based in New York City, and I'm about to make that decision. I've got the script for both of them and I'm making that decision in four to six weeks, no longer than six weeks...'Gatsby,' it is the Fitzgerald book and I've been working on that quite a lot. The other one is also New York based and music-driven and it's just a question of ... what is the next right step for me.

He wouldn't comment on casting, saying that the text is always primary and then casting comes afterward. "Obviously there are natural choices and there is a natural top of the list, but I really refuse to say anything until we have text right."

PWeekly's tweet pegs the rumored casting as Leonardo DiCaprio for Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire for Nick Carraway and Amanda Seyfried for Daisy Buchanan. I'd expect something of that scale for a big lit adaptation like this one, but that said don't take that list too seriously just yet. Check back in two months down the road, and if Baz Luhrmann truly decides to go with Gatsby (seems like the solid choice) then maybe some of those actors will bite.