By Kim Voynar Voynar@moviecitynews.com
Adapting Gatsby
I was just emailing back and forth with a friend at a studio the other day about how I’d love to see a really killer new adaptation of The Great Gatsby, and then today Variety reports that Baz Lurhmann has bought the rights to Gatsby and wants to direct. Much as I’ve enjoyed much of Luhrmann’s work, and like his visual style, he’s not really who I’d think of to direct an adaptation of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.
Honestly, you know who I’d love to see tackle Gatsby? Darren Aronofsky. For all that it was flawed, The Fountain was gorgeous to look at, and with The Wrestler he’s shown he can handle an intimate character story with subtlety and depth. Or I’d like to see Ramin Bahrani, whose indie films Man Push Cart, Chop Shop and Goodbye Solo have all been utterly superb. He’s one of our best upcoming young directors, his next film is a period drama set in the Gold Rush, and I’m curious to see how he handles that material. Bahrani gets character stories, he has a unique eye for finding what’s most compelling about the characters he explores, and he and his cinematographer, Michael Simmonds, do some beautiful visual work together.
While we’re talking about adaptations, I’d also love to see someone take on a remake of The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass, which was made back in 1979 as Die Blechtrommel and won the Best Foreign Oscar. I’m immersed in reading the book now, and it’s so crazy, savage, but still beautiful. Not sure who I’d want to direct it for a remake, though … Tom Tykwer, maybe. Loved what he did with Perfume.