January 27, 2021
Good news for The Great Gatsby fans as the classic tale is officially coming to television.
The big-budget miniseries will be making its way to television screens for A + E Studios as well as ITV Studios America with the Fitzgerald estate also being part of it.
Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, the script will be written by Michael Hirst who will also be the executive producer along with Groundswell Productions’ Michael London.
Apart from that, the estate of the late writer is also involved as his and Zelda Fitgerald’s great-granddaughter, being a trustee of the estate, will take the role of a consulting producer.
Regarding the close-ended series, Hirst said, per the Hollywood Reporter: "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.”
“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 added.
The series will bring to focus the African American community of New York in 1920s.