The Great Gatsby Trailer: Does It Live Up To Expectations?

The new trailer for Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby has been released online and its star-studded vintage glamour has already caught the attention of film buffs the world over. To look at the trailer, it becomes immediately apparent that the Moulin Rouge director was the perfect candidate to take on the movie, with its glitz and decadence.

The movie, based on Fitzgerald's classic story, tells the tale of Nick Carraway, a Midwesterner displaced to Long Island. Carraway becomes obsessed with the mysterious life of his neighbour, Jay Gatsby. He soon becomes embroiled in a world of deceit and tragedy. Tobey Maguire plays the role of Carraway, to Leonardo Dicaprio's Gatsby. Carey Mulligan and Isla Fisher also star, in a movie that seems, from the trailer at least, to have perfected the balance of eye-candy and serious drama as well as the modern, with the old. It may be the era of flapper dresses and cocktails, but it is soundtracked by a very modern selection of tracks. Set it in 1920s, but with a hip-hop beat to match, the era and the genre matched by their penchant for champagne, perhaps.

Shot in crisp technicolour, it is a very modern working of a book that was last filmed in 1974, with Mia Farrow and Robert Redford taking centre-stage. Luhrmann's version was shot in Australia, though does a convincing job of creating a crisp vision of 1920s New York. The movie is scheduled for release in December 2012.