[New York Times]

…

But “The Great Gatsby,” written by Mr. Luhrmann with his long-time collaborator Craig Pearce, will tell whether 3-D can actually serve actors as they struggle through a complex story set squarely inside the natural world.

If “The Great Gatsby” succeeds, it may open the door to a new generation of sophisticated movie dramas that will match the spectacle value of the animations (“Happy Feet Two”), action films (“Underworld: Awakening”) and elaborate fables (“Hugo,” “The Adventures of Tintin”) that now fill Hollywood’s 3-D release schedule.

…

It was a lecture by Mr. Cameron, then working on “Avatar,” that persuaded Mr. Luhrmann 3-D might help him find what had been missing in “Gatsby.” To examine the potential of actors in 3-D without the gimmickry of contemporary action sequences, Mr. Luhrmann turned to Alfred Hitchcock’s 3-D version of “Dial M for Murder,” from 1954. It wasn’t easy. He found only two projectors, one in New York, one in Burbank, Calif., that could still play that film.

The sensation of moving through it with Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings sealed the deal — both for himself and for Mr. DiCaprio and the troupe, who also studied the Hitchcock film. “It was like theater,” Mr. Luhrmann said.

Michael Lewis, chief executive of the 3-D technology provider RealD, said, “This is the final stage in the maturing of the medium.”  …

Read the full story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/movies/baz-luhrmann-puts-the-great-gatsby-into-3-d.html?_r=2&ref=movies