With a brand-new, star studded cast, including leading man Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of the great Gatsby himself, the new movie “The Great Gatsby” is supposed to be met with rave reviews.
It has been nearly 40 years since the last Gatsby movie, and the last version, Jack Clayton’s in 1974, was the first Gatsby film in color.
This year’s Gatsby was originally intended for release on Dec. 25th of last year. Although it is unknown what the reason for the pushback was, Warner Bros. President of international distribution Kwan Vanderbeg appeared unruffled.
“We think ‘The Great Gatsby’ will be the perfect summer movie around the world,” said Vanderberg in a Huffington Post article.
Fans of both the novel, past movie adaptations, and DiCaprio are all in a buzz about the remake.
“I’m totally pumped for it, said Will Engleheart, ’14. “To be honest, I don’t think I could be any more pumped. It’s a film that’s destined to be legendary.”
Jimmy Ray Stagg, ’16 agreed with Engleheart and is also looking forward to the movie.
“I am definitely excited. The trailer looks amazing and the soundtrack sounds awesome,” Stagg said.
Others aren’t quite so pleased, however, including Sam Adelmann, ‘14.
“[I am not] particularly excited. I would care more if I had already read the book,” he said.
But even those who have read the books and are totally pumped about the movie have a few reservations. First in their mind: how true to the novel will the movie be?
Everyone has had that one movie they thought was going to be great which turned into a popcorn-chucking, booing, director-cursing nightmare (“The Lightning Thief” anyone?).
“I think the hardest thing will be satisfaction. Everybody who has read the book that I’ve talked to absolutely loves it and can’t wait for the movie. They have really high expectations and I would hate for this movie to not meet them,” said Stagg.
English teacher Susan O’Hara agrees with Stagg and believes that it will be hard for the movie to live up to the quality of the book.
“I think the joy of reading the novel–and I have read this novel at least twenty times–lies in the descriptive passages, in the language,” O’Hara said. “I never get bored reading it. I don’t expect the film to capture that.”
With the movie coming out in only a few days, everyone planning on seeing it has high hopes. See you in the theatres!
