While displaying his collaborative art installation with fellow Australian artist Vincent Fantauzzo, director Baz Luhrmann made a comment on the status of his next film project. According to AP, the Moulin Rouge director said he hasn’t decided on his next project and is juggling between three movie projects and two stage productions.
Details about his movie projects were given via his collaboration on a charity auction with partner Catherine Martin where one lucky winner will get the chance to appear as a featured extra in the next motion picture by Luhrmann. The auction tells us that “Luhrmann intends to shoot a new motion picture no earlier than 2011, and is currently coming to a determination about whether it will be a historical epic, a major musical work, or a literary adaptation. ”
The literary adaptation would most likely be a film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s classic novel The Great Gatsby, which Luhrmann purchased the rights to back in 2008.
Luhrmann has been attempting to bring a historical epic to the screen for awhile with the failed fruition of his version of Alexander the Great. While this project never made it to screen, Luhrmann has made comments about temporarily abandoning his ideas for an epic trilogy in favor of “something short and pop and very immediate before (he) leapfrogs into a larger work”.
Since Luhrmann is best known for his musical works, the ideas of his next musical are the highly anticipated. Luhrmann recently met with Slumdog Millionaire composer, A.R. Rahman, about collaborating on a film that would shoot in India. In a comment from The India Times, in reference to working with A.R. Rahman, the director said, “We had a discussion and he’s fantastic. We are planning to create some work together, but it’s too early to talk about it. I’d just say that we want to create the right piece, for the right story so that it can be told well.”
Another musical possibility would be a larger scale production with previous collaborators, Hugh Jackman and Beyonce Knowles, which Luhrmann did a short number with for the 2009 Academy Awards. Luhrmann quoted to Vogue on the possible future collaboration with Knowles, that “one can only pray. My mind is racing already… I’m sure that there is a dramatic cinematic life for her. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen that kind of performer, like Barbara Streisand and Diana Ross, on the screen.”
What would you like to see as Luhrmann’s next major film project?