Baz Luhrmann Workshops 'The Great Gatsby' With Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire And Rebecca Hall

We recently heard that Baz Luhrmann is thinking about directing one of two possible projects. One is a musical, and the other is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby. The latter has been rumored to star Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Amanda Seyfried, with Natalie Portman also discussed as an option for the female lead, but the decision between the two projects, Mr. Luhrmann said, would likely be made at the end of this month or into the middle of November.

Now, however, there's a report that DiCaprio and Maguire have been quietly workshopping scenes from The Great Gatsby with the director in New York City, with Rebecca Hall reading the lead female role of Daisy Buchanan.

The Wrap offers this news. The site further reports that Leonardo DiCaprio is reading Jay Gatsby and Tobey Maguire Nick Carraway, who narrates the '20s-set tale of the American Dream and the collision between old money and new on Long Island Sound as Jay Gatsby chases his lost love, Daisy Buchanan.

This is naturally leading to supposition that The Great Gatsby will be the director's next film. Doing the workshops would be a way to polish the script specifically for these actors, and the participation of the two rumored male leads only helps power the rumor mill.

Rebecca Hall hasn't previously been linked to the project, but she'd be a very interesting choice. While Amanda Seyfried could easily convince as the superficial Daisy, who ignores her young daughter and leads an empty life in her 'married into' East Egg mansion, Rebecca Hall could more deeply convey the failing shine of the old money side of Long Island Sound. But would she work as a young woman with a Louisiana background? She's quite good, so very possibly.

Baz Luhrmann frequently workshops his scripts, however, so this isn't the most unusual set of events, at least within the span of his own career. In other words, don't lock Gatsby down as his next film just yet, even if this does seem to skew the odds in its favor.