The Rich Are Different: They’re in 3-D
But “The Great Gatsby,” written by Mr. Luhrmann with his long-time collaborator Craig Pearce, will tell whether 3-D can actually serve actors as they struggle through a complex story set squarely inside the natural world.
If “The Great Gatsby” succeeds, it may open the door to a new generation of sophisticated movie dramas that will match the spectacle value of the animations (“Happy Feet Two”), action films (“Underworld: Awakening”) and elaborate fables (“Hugo,”“The Adventures of Tintin”) that now fill Hollywood’s 3-D release schedule.
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It was a lecture by Mr. Cameron, then working on “Avatar,” that persuaded Mr. Luhrmann 3-D might help him find what had been missing in “Gatsby.” To examine the potential of actors in 3-D without the gimmickry of contemporary action sequences, Mr. Luhrmann turned to Alfred Hitchcock’s 3-D version of “Dial M for Murder,” from 1954. ...
The sensation of moving through it with Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings sealed the deal — both for himself and for Mr. DiCaprio and the troupe, who also studied the Hitchcock film. “It was like theater,” Mr. Luhrmann said.
Michael Lewis, chief executive of the 3-D technology provider RealD, said, “This is the final stage in the maturing of the medium.” ...
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