“I want to write something new, something extraordinary and ...

“The Valley of Ashes was a real place, a place that Fitzgerald, who actually
had a house in Long Island and regularly made trips to New York, would’ve actually
gone through. It’s where Citi Field—formerly Shea Stadium—is today and where the
World’s Fair was once held,” says Martin.
During the research period, the filmmakers discovered that every few months,
new track had to be laid through the Valley, because so much ash was dumped
there, it would cover over the existing train tracks.
“All the boilers of New York using coal had to have somewhere to put the
refuse, and it all went out to these great heaps,” Martin describes. “So I think it
must’ve really struck Fitzgerald, on his weekly or sometimes daily trips out of Long
Island, as such a strange contrast between the buzzing metropolis of New York and
this enormous wasteland. We built all the elements that came to create the little
township that’s described in Fitzgerald’s book.”
MAKING IT POP
"He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time,
decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way."*
—Nick Carraway
While Luhrmann wanted his big screen version of The Great Gatsby to be
faithful to Fitzgerald’s vision and the era, he made the unexpected decision to
direct the feature in 3D, in order to bring Gatsby’s world to life in a way that has
never been done before.
“Baz mentioned to me that he didn’t want this film to look like a period film—
what we think the `20s looked like,” recalls cinematographer Simon Duggan. “He
wanted it to feel like we were right there and then, in a sophisticated world where
almost everything is brand new. As such, we were absolutely trying not to create any
sort of period feel.”
To that end, Luhrmann used 3D technology to enhance both the
performance and the presence of his actors. “I had a moment of epiphany one day
when I saw a version of Hitchcock’s ‘Dial M for Murder’ in 3D. It wasn’t things coming
at me that was interesting to me—what was interesting was to see Grace Kelly just
moving around in a room in 3D. I mean, I just wanted to reach out and touch her.
And the camera’s not moving, she’s just moving and acting. So, it struck me how
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