Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Great Gatsby’ Will Open Cannes Film Festival

BAZMARK FILM III PTY LIMITED Carey Mulligan and Leonardo DiCaprio in a scene from “The Great Gatsby.”

Who said there are no second acts in American lives Oh, right: It was F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose seminal novel “The Great Gatsby” is getting a lavish reinterpretation from the director Baz Luhrmann that will open the Cannes Film Festival, its organizers announced Tuesday.

Mr. Luhrmann’s adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” Fitzgerald’s tale of opulence, excess and the degradation of the American dream, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the mysterious West Egg millionaire Jay Gatsby, Tobey Maguire as his friend and admirer Nick Caraway, Carey Mulligan as Gatsby’s romantic obsession, Daisy Buchanan, and Joel Edgerton, as her husband, Tom. While there have been several movie versions of “The Great Gatsby” (including the 1974 film that starred Robert Redford, Sam Waterston and Mia Farrow), this one from Mr. Luhrmann (the director of “Romeo + Juliet” and “Moulin Rouge!”) is surely the first to be presented in 3-D, old sport.

Mr. Luhrmann said in a statement: “It is a great honor for all those who have worked on ‘The Great Gatsby’ to open the Cannes Film Festival. We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts, not only because my first film ‘Strictly Ballroom’ was screened there 21 years ago, but also because F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of the most poignant and beautiful passages of his extraordinary novel just a short distance away at a villa outside Saint-Raphaël.”

This year’s festival starts May 15, the day that “The Great Gats! by” is to be released in theaters, and will beat on, boats against the current, until May 26.