A+E and ITV America have partnered to develop The Great Gatsby into a new miniseries. Michael Hirst (Vikings, Elizabeth, The Tudors) has teamed with them, as revealed by The Hollywood Reporter.
Hirst’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s legendary novel is described as a “reimagining”, and will divert from the source material somewhat. The series will delve even further into the secretive lives of its many characters through a modern, shattered vision of the American vision. It will more broadly explore New York’s 1920s Black community and the musical subculture, too.
Hirst believes right now is a perfect time for a new version of The Great Gatsby because “America seeks to reinvent itself once again”. He sees the contemporary landscape as 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.”
Hirst is on hand as both scriptwriter and executive producer alongside Groundswell Productions’ Michael London (Sideways, Milk). Blake Hazard, a great-granddaughter of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and trustee of the Fitzgerald estate, is on board as a consulting producer.
Blake Hazard said: “I have long dreamt of a more diverse, inclusive version of Gatsby that better reflects the America we live in, one that might allow us all to see ourselves in Scott’s wildly romantic text.”
She continued: “Michael brings a deep reverence for Scott’s work to the project, but also a fearlessness about bringing such an iconic story to life in an accessible and fresh way. I’m delighted to be a part of the project.”
THR sources said A+E have had the TV rights to The Great Gatsby for decades. They previously co-produced a for-television movie with the BBC in 2000 which starred Paul Rudd as Nick Carraway, Mira Sorvino as Daisy and Toby Stephens as Gatsby himself.
Currently, we do not know when Michael Hirst’s version of The Great Gatsby will be released. We do know that co-producers plan to shop the series around to premium cable networks and streaming outlets and that no final network decisions have been made at the time of writing.
