THE GREAT GATSBY Production Notes - Visual Hollywood

THE GREAT GATSBY (2013)
PRODUCTION NOTES
were less complicated for them," relays Monsted. "It's really an expression of the place that Gatsby
is trying to get back to with her. Craig has taken the tune and woven it throughout the score, so even
though we may not hear Lana singing the song, we're reminded of what it means."
Another important collaborator on the soundtrack was Bryan Ferry, who re-recorded some of the
more traditional jazz tracks with his Bryan Ferry Orchestra. "I wanted the soundtrack to also be a
blend of jazz—traditional jazz," says Luhrmann. "Bryan Ferry, whose obsession is traditional jazz,
has actually created some tracks of well-known pieces."
Ferry took on a couple of the classics: his own "Love Is The Drug," and, with Emeli Sandé, Beyoncé's
"Crazy in Love"; and even more traditional jazz tunes have been spiced up a little. "Within
the scene you might have a piece of very traditional jazz performed by the Bryan Ferry Orchestra,
but then it will seamlessly become a performance track by JAY Z," says Monsted.
Says Luhrmann, "We did that to help the audience get that same feeling as when the reader read the
book in 1925, what it meant that there was jazz in the story. It was dangerous and intoxicating and
thrilling and sexy, and it was jazz!
"'The Great Gatsby' is such an entertaining, modern story," Luhrmann concludes. "It has this fantastic
romance, the world of the bootlegger, it has flash, it has cash, but it also has violence and death
and tragedy. Most importantly, underneath all of this it has complex, rich characters and deep emotion,
passion and love."
*From the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
© 2013 Warner Bros. Pictures
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