Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby unveiled in New York Leonardo DiCaprio attends the The Great Gatsby world premiere in New York City. The Great Gatsby has finally been unveiled. IT may have taken a little longer than expected but the covers have finally been pulled off Baz Luhrmann's long-awaited and much-anticipated period epic The Great Gatsby at a sparkling premiere in New York. With his full cast in attendance - as well as his soundtrack collaborator Jay Z - Luhrmann chatted with reporters down a black carpet which snaked through the impressive Lincoln Centre. Also there - his leading man Leonardo DiCaprio who made a memorable impression on the local ladies of Sydney during the film's (oft-extended) shoot between 2011 and 2012. The actor, who wore a classic but subdued grey suit and a neatly trimmed beard, arrived dateless and spoke to reporters about what drew him to the project and remenisced about the first Luhrmann project that shot him to stardom. "I met Baz [Luhrmann] two decades ago, when I was eighteen years old and he had this insane notion of doing 'Romeo & Juliet' in a sort of hyper-universe," he told reporters. I thought he was crazy, but he is a ground-breaking filmmaker who is not afraid to take on some of the most classic, complex, beloved material of all time. Seeing him twenty years later, he hasn't changed in that regard. 'Gatsby' is the seminal American novel, it sort of defines America in the 1920s, it kind of predicted the stock market crash that soon came after, and as the center figure is this very complex, mysterious, existential character known as Jay Gatsby. As much as Baz wants to recreate these worlds and sort of give it a modern context, he's always vigilant about sticking to what made that novel great. And that was the most important thing to me and I think he pulled it off with flying colors in this movie. Whether or not the critics agree is yet to be seen. Reviews of the ultra-hyped flick are yet to trickle in and film pundits have already been mixed on Luhrmann's efforts based on the trailers (four were released in total) alone. Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton and Isla Fisher step out at the premiere for The Great Gatsby in New York.