With his Elvis biopic wowing cinemagoers and critics alike, Baz Luhrmann is back at the top of his game. The American filmmaker is mostly known for his ‘Red Curtain Trilogy,’ which features rom-com Strictly Ballroom, the musical Moulin Rogue! and his unique take on the Shakespearean tragedy: ‘90s movie Romeo + Juliet.
Also amid his dazzling filmography is 2013 drama movie The Great Gatsby, whose cast included Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, and Spider-Man actor Tobey Maguire. The film, which is adapted from the classic F Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name, was not only nominated for two Academy Awards, but also had a eclectic soundtrack that topped the records charts and scored a Grammy nomination.
With Jay-Z as the soundtrack’s producer, the album included a mixture of hip-hop and jazz, with the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am being among the artists who recorded new material for the album.
Speaking at the BAFTA’s Life In Pictures event in London, Luhrmann revealed that one song from The Great Gatsby soundtrack — ‘Young and Beautiful’ — was a late addition to album.
Originally, Luhrmann explained, he was working on a song with Prince for the soundtrack. “Prince had worked on a song for six months, and then suddenly decided to write a new one and it wasn’t right,” he explained. When that fell through, he called Lana Del Rey in the hopes of finding a replacement — and the rest is history.
Talking about his inspiration for the Elvis movie soundtrack, Luhrmann added, “My mission was to take someone who was the poster boy of American pop culture, and to use Elvis as a canvas to explore a larger idea.”
Elvis is now available to stream on HBO Max for US audiences, and for those in the UK, can be rented or purchased across streaming services like Apple TV Plus and Amazon Prime Video.