Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures have officially pushed back the much anticipated release of Baz Luhrmann’s ada[tation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby” by around six months.
Originally scheduled to hit at Christmas this year, the film will now hit during the height of the U.S. summer film season next year, though no specific date in the May-August time period has been selected as yet.
Disitribution presidents Dan Fellman and Veronika Kwan Vandenberg also gave an official statement about the move. Fellman says “Based on what we’ve seen, Baz Luhrmann’s incredible work is all we anticipated and so much more. It truly brings Fitzgerald’s American classic to life in a completely immersive, visually stunning and exciting way. We think moviegoers of all ages are going to embrace it, and it makes sense to ensure this unique film reaches the largest audience possible.”
Vandenberg added “Baz is known for being innovative, but with this film he has done something completely unexpected—making it in 3D—while capturing the emotion, the intimacy, the power and the spectacle of the time. The responses we’ve had to some of the early sneak peeks have been phenomenal, and we think ‘The Great Gatsby’ will be the perfect summer movie around the world.”
While the move likely increases the film’s commercial potential, it effectively scuttles much of the awards hopes for the project. Luhrmann famously takes his time finishing and refining his projects in post, no word if that had any effect on the delay here.
It also partly frees up an overcrowded December schedule which already includes “The Hobbit”, “Jack Reacher,” “Django Unchained,” “Les Miserables,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” three comedies including Judd Apatow’s “This is 40”, and numerous high profile limited releases including “Amour,” “Hyde Park on Hudson ” and “The Impossible”.
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