"It takes two to make an accident." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 3

Director Baz Luhrmann is currently in Australia shooting his adaptation of The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo Di Caprio (Jay Gatsby), Tobey Maguire (Nick Carraway), Isla Fisher (Myrtle Wilson), and Carey Mulligan (Daisy Buchanan). Hopefully it turns out better than Australia (WOOF), but in the meantime, here’s a few pictures from the set. Either they’re just driving around the set in these and not actually shooting, or the costume designer decided to go real casual. “This is set when? Eh, I dunno, just throw on a t-shirt.”

Oh, and I thought the banner picture could use a little Gyllenhaal to brighten it up.

[FlynetPictures via ComingSoon]

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Tobey Maguire’s double life as a high-stakes poker player is coming to light as a result of an FBI investigation into a an embezzling hedge-fund manager who was also a degenerate gambler (shocking, I know).  Basically, this guy, Brad Ruderman, whose name couldn’t possibly sound more like the name of a douchey hedge-fund manager, lost $25 million of his clients’ money in secret poker games with Hollywood stars like Maguire, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Webster.  Okay, I made that last one up. Now, some of Ruderman’s clients say they’re entitled to Maguire’s winnings, because they were acquired through illegal means, and because the money Ruderman money lost was rightfully theirs.  Yeah, yeah, and America “rightfully” belongs to the Indians, here’s me playing the world’s smallest invisible dick violin with my dismissive wank hand.

As Ruderman sits in a Texas jail until 2018, convicted on two counts of wire fraud and two counts of investment adviser fraud, lawyers for the clients whose funds he embezzled are filing a series of civil suits against those who won big in the illegal poker dens, in the hope of recouping some of their lost savings.
Ruderman lost $311,300 to Maguire, including one losing hand of $110,000, on July 30, 2007, it’s claimed.
The games were “exclusive events, by invitation only, and that there was a regular roster of players consisting of wealthy celebrities, entrepreneurs, attorneys and businessmen,” according to the lawsuit.
Tinsel town A-listers Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon also played in the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em games held on a twice weekly basis in suites at the luxury Beverly Hills hotel, Four Seasons, and the Viper Room on Sunset Boulevard, which had a buy-in of $100,000, multiple members of the ring told Star.  DiCaprio, Affleck and Damon are not being sued.
Others who were part of the secret society and are facing hefty lawsuits include billionaire businessman Alex Gores, The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes, Welcome Back, Kotter star Gabe Kaplan, Paris Hilton’s infamous sex tape partner, Rick Salomon, record label owner Cody Leibel and Las Vegas nightlife entrepreneur and real-estate developer Andrew Sasson, among others.
Maguire won as much as $1 million a month over a period of three years, one source told Star, which is on newsstands Wednesday.
“That means he could have made up to $30 to $40 million from these games,” the whistle-blowing card shark predicted. [RadarOnline]

And I’m sure that’s an accurate estimate, because if there’s one thing I know about poker, it’s that your earnings from it are as constant and reliable as Old Faithful. One Hollywood A-lister whose name you WON’T find among the invitees to the games, however, is Paul Walker, who was no doubt presumed to have an unfair advantage. If you’ve seen any of his movies, you know the one thing that guy’s got going for him is an impenetrable poker face.

RELEVANT

Because Martin Scorcese just can’t quit Leo DiCaprio, he plans to shoot him in The Wolf of Wall Street, his very next film (after he finishes post on Hugo Cabret and directs his adaptation of a Shusaku Endo book starring Benicio Del Toro, but who’s keeping track).

After crying wolf before [I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE], Martin Scorsese now plans to follow through and direct The Wolf of Wall Street with Leonardo DiCaprio, with Boardwalk Empire‘s Terry Winter having adapted the Jordan Belfort memoir [Vitor's brother, I assume]. They will announce financing and a start date in Cannes.

DiCaprio will play a Wall Streeter with a raging drug habit and hard partying lifestyle that ultimately brings him down. Belford spent 22 months in federal prison for stock market manipulation. Despite the sound of that, I’m told the script is funny, dramatic and fast paced, and manages to make something of a sympathetic character out of a stockbroker who supervises a cadre of brokers who squeezed clients to buy stocks that paid off–for the brokers, who used the funds to live extravagantly until they were brought down by the feds.

Hmm, the rise and fall of a brash stock broker… I get the strange feeling I’ve seen this before, but I’m sure it’s just deja vu.  STOCKS! BONDS! JAGER BOMBS! STRIPPERS! BUY! SELL! MONEY PORN FOR A-HOLES!  I hope it’s not too critical of finance culture.  We can always just get the team of coke-addicted spider monkeys who punched up Oliver Stone’s Wall Street 2 script.  NEEDS ANOTHER MONTAGE! (*flings poop*)

Better idea: The wolf of Wall Street is an actual wolf, and the part of Leonardo DiCaprio will be played by Strutting Leo Cat.  You’re welcome, Hollywood.

This isn’t the most gracefully-edited mashup I’ve ever seen, and four minutes and thirty seconds is a long time to watch Leonardo DiCaprio freaking out, but still, it is four straight minutes of Leonardo freaking out.  I also could’ve used more Leonardo in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.  But then I also said that about Schindler’s List.  That mashup and more, after the jump!

(*climbs into metallic pink smart car, speeds away*)

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(The Great Catsby, obvi)

When I first heard Baz Luhrmann would be making a film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, my first thought was, “BUT WILL IT BE DARK AND/OR GRITTY?   CAN IT BE UPDATED FOR CONTEMPORARY AUDIENCES? AND WHAT OF ADDING VAMPIRES?”  Looks like I might not be disappointed…

Praising the 3D format, director Baz Luhrmann told The Hollywood Reporter that he has workshopped his upcoming project The Great Gatsby in 3D, though he has not made a call about whether to shoot in the format.

I imagine the final call will depend on whether Luhrmann thinks the bulky 3D camera rig will be maneuverable enough for all the car chases and wire work.

(barely related)