Oscar nominated (and robbed of the statue, let's be honest) 25 year old Brit actress
Carey Mulligan wept at The Fashion Council Awards last night in New York when director
Baz Luhrmann called her cell and informed the An Education star she had been cast as the manipulative Daisy Buchanan in his big screen version of
The Great Gatsby. That's the kind of desire we like, ain't it? After Luhrmann tested a fair number of
Hollywood's biggest names alongside lead
Leonardo DiCaprio (Jay Gatsby) that didn't quite work, Luhrmann invited Mulligan late in the day and her audition blew the director and Sony away. Luhrmann says;
"I was privileged to explore the character with some of the world's most talented actresses, each one bringing their own particular interpretation, all of which were legitimate and exciting. However, specific to this particular production of The Great Gatsby, I was thrilled to pick up the phone an hour ago to the young Oscar-nominated British actress Carey Mulligan and say to her: "Hello, Daisy Buchanan."
You can see an image of Mulligan as Daisy here, taken on Nov. 2nd during rehearsals... So now that Luhrmann has put together his dream cast of DiCaprio, Mulligan and
Tobey Maguire (as Nick Carraway) and has gained financing, this one is all ready to film next year then, right? Well not exactly. Luhrmann is now no longer show it'll be his next movie...
"The results from the workshop process on The Great Gatsby have been very encouraging... There are a few elements that I feel need to be resolved before I would categorically state that this is my next film.
Presumably there might be a problem with scheduling. DiCaprio will film Clint Eastwood's
J. Edgar Hoover biopic in January which will probably keep him busy for the first four months of the new year.