The Great Gatsby (Part 2 - The Movies): Everything You Didn't Know

Get ready for Gatsby 2: Gatz Harder! In the second installment of their deep dive into The Great Gatsby, the TMI guys follow the novel’s improbable rise from critical failure to cultural cornerstone. When it was first published in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece was dismissed as a “literary lemon meringue” and sold fewer than 25,000 copies in his lifetime. He died thinking he'd been forgotten, but within a decade, the book was rediscovered — by soldiers, scholars, and eventually Hollywood. Jordan and Heigl unpack its long, often cursed journey to the screen, including the disastrous silent version that Fitzgerald and Zelda walked out of, and a 1949 remake plagued by moral censors and a suicidal director. But nothing beats the real-life drama of the 1974 adaptation, which was nearly derailed by a real-life love triangle: producer Robert Evans commissioned the film for his wife, Love Story star Ali MacGraw — only for her to leave him for co-star Steve McQueen before filming began. She was replaced by Mia Farrow, while a distracted Robert Redford spent much of the shoot glued to Watergate coverage. Jordan and Alex also look at Baz Luhrmann’s glittery 2013 remake, complete with 100,000 liters of fake rain, Jay-Z’s much-maligned soundtrack, and Tobey Maguire being weird. It’s a tale of art, obsession, reinvention — and a few of Heigl's rants. 

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