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'The Great Gatsby' to open Cannes Film Festival

Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY
"The Great Gatsby' will open the Cannes Film Festival in May
  • %27The Great Gatsby%27 will open the Cannes Film Festival May 15%2C the second time a 3-D film has opened the festival
  • Director Baz Luhrmann called the decision to open the festival %22a great honor%22
  • The 3-D film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as millionaire Jay Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is fittingly receiving the most glamorous of movie debuts.

Baz Luhrmann's much-awaited 3-D adaption of F Scott Fitzgerald's famous novel will open the Cannes Film Festival in May, festival organizers announced on their website Tuesday.

"It is a great honor for all those who have worked on The Great Gatsby to open the Cannes Film Festival," Luhrmann said in a statement. "We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts."

Luhrmann pointed out that his film Strictly Ballroom was screened in Cannes 21 years ago. But there is more Gatsby history in the region as well.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of the most poignant and beautiful passages of his extraordinary novel just a short distance away at a villa outside Saint-Raphaël," Luhrmann said in the statement.

The opening night will be May 15 for the festival, which runs until May 26. Director Steven Spielberg has already been announced as the jury president.

Luhrmann's Gatsby stars Leonardo DiCaprio as 1920s millionaire Jay Gatsby in the part that Robert Redford portrayed in the 1974 version of the film.

The 2013 edition is narrated by Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) and Carey Mulligan stars as Gatsby's obsession Daisy Buchanan. Her husband is played by Joel Edgerton.

Edgerton told USA TODAY in 2012 that watching some of the book's lavish party scenes filmed in Australia were some of the most amazing scenes he'd ever seen created.

"Watching the party scene being made, my jaw kind of hit the floor," Edgerton said. "This big crane shots of hundreds of people with everyone dressed in so much detail. It was breathtaking to watch."

"Then you'd see all of these extras walking around dressed like they were in the 1920s but holding iPhones to their ears," he added. "It was amazing."

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