The Great Gatsby will be receiving a television adaptation courtesy of A&E.
A+E Studios and ITV Studios America are teaming with writer Michael Hirst for a big-budget TV series based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hirst will write the series and executive produce with Groundswell Productions' Michael London. Blake Hazard, Fitzgerald's great-granddaughter and a trustee of his estate, will serve as a consulting producer. The new Gatsby series will explore several elements of the 1920's, including the music subculture and Black community.
"I seem to have lived with Gatsby most of my life, reading it first as a schoolboy, later teaching it at Oxford in the 1970s then re-reading it periodically ever since," Hirst told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. "As the critic Lionel Trilling once wrote: 'The Great Gatsby is still as fresh as when it first appeared, it has even gained in weight and relevance.' Today, as America seeks to reinvent itself once again, is the perfect moment to look with new eyes at this timeless story, to explore its famous and iconic characters through the modern lens of gender, race and sexual orientation. Fitzgerald's profoundly romantic vision does not prevent him examining and exposing the darker underbelly of the American experience, which is why the story speaks to both tragedy and hope, and why it continues to resonate today." Hirst's other works include The Tudors and Vikings.
The Great Gatsby has been adapted numerous times, including a film version in 2013 with Leonardo DiCaprio as mysterious billionaire Jay Gatsby. The novel entered the public domain this year, meaning its characters and story can be used in other mediums.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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