Baz Luhrmann cranks up style for The Great Gatsby

Everything about producing his film version ofThe Great Gatsby was a risk, says director Baz Luhrmann.

The Australianknown for sweeping epics such as 2008's Australia and the stylish musical Moulin Rouge cranks up the style factor for his latest movie, based on F. Scott Fitzgeralds much-loved novel.

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But in taking a literary classic to the screen, hes bound to run afoul of purists who see the book in a different light.

He recreates the Jazz Age, laying on the glitz from the flapper dresses to the lavish parties at Gatsbys castle-like home in West Egg (a fictional community onLong Island, N.Y.) The costumes and production design are done by his wife Catherine Martin.

But he deviates from period authenticity with a sound track that includes hip hop songs by Jay-Z and collaborators.

"I think without consciously doing it, theres no middle ground with me or my productions," Luhrmann told CBC News. " I dont notice it. Its just the way I do things. But I recognize that everythings absolute to me its completely absorbing and I get really absorbed in it."

The Great Gatsby reunites Luhrmann with Leonardo DiCaprio, who played Romeo in Luhrmanns 1996 film version of Romeo and Juliet. At that time, DiCaprio was just 21 hes now 38.

"He was a very gifted boy. He was dazzling and interesting and great and funny but he was a gifted boy. Now he is a truly mature man and in this regard he was a true partner in creation of The Great Gatsby," Luhrmann said.

DiCaprios role as Jay Gatsby, the self-made millionaire in love with a woman he cannot have, is hotly anticipated.

Luhrmann says the actor is great friends with Toby Maguire, who is playing Gatsbys friend Nick Carraway and the three of them made a "tight triangle" during the development and shooting of the movie.

Also in the cast are Carey Mulligan as Daisy and Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan.

The Great Gatsby is released Friday across most of Canada.