Baz Luhrmann is nothing if not ambitious. Not content with creating the biggest-budget film in Australian history (Australia, with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman), the director has taken on the task of retelling The Great Gatsby.
The actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Isla Fisher and Joel Edgerton, have big shoes to fill - the 1974 version with Robert Redford as the enigmatic Gatsby and Mia Farrow as the ethereal Daisy Buchanan still fills many viewers' hearts as the definitive version.
But in the first stills of Baz's version, released today, it seems that fortune has favoured the brave, with the chemistry apparent between DiCaprio and Mulligan evident even in these un-moving pics.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan in The Great Gatsby, due for release in December 2012
The cast could not be better. If DiCaprio pulls off the same combination of arrogance, obsession, vulnerability and ultimate unknowability that he brought to the screen in The Aviator, he will be well primed for another Oscar nod come 2013 (the film is not scheduled for release until the end of next year).
Meanwhile, Carey Mulligan has, in a short time, proved her versatility with An Education, Never Let Me Go and the controversial Shame. Many tipped her as the obvious choice over Anne Hathaway for the heroine in the big-screen adaptation of One Day. But Mulligan may prove to be destined for bigger, and better, things.
Cast members line up: Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton