'The Great Gatsby' now to bow May 2013

It is safe to say, May 2013 will be either a huge month for films, or go bust with so many to choose from. Warmer Bros. has decided to hang The Great Gatsby out to dry on May 10, after yanking the film a month or so ago from its original Christmas Day release. This now puts the film in competition with tent-pole blockbusters like Iron Man 3, which opens on May 3rd and Star Trek Into Darkness, which opens on May 17th. Plus it will have to deal with both Fast Six and The Hangover 3, which open on May 24th.

Now some can say this is an alternative programming, that while Iron Man 3 should dominate the first 2 weeks of May, a film like The Great Gatsby might be able to pilfer off some people who don't care to see the Robert Downey, Jr. film in week two of May and want something different -which based on the trailer- Baz Lurhmann's adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, seems to be. And while the film is not a sequel, it is a remake.

The hardest aspect of marketing Gatsby is just who really wants to see it. Some have called it Moulin Rouge 2, which highlights Lurhmann's visual style over substance (the Australian director is not known as one who seems to really care about the story), and its clear this will not be true to the novel's tone. Student's and young adults may want to see it, if only because they were forced to read the novel in English or their AP classes. And the last big screen version, which came out in 1974, was highly panned by critics and movie goers.

Adults may want to also, but since the film is designed to appeal to the visual audience -all sound and fury-, it may also turn them off because the pitch and atmosphere is not what they'll be expecting in a film that is, in its basic format, a period piece. Another words, don't expect Masterpiece Theater, because what you are really getting is modern day actors speaking modern day dialogue, with modern day dialect and with a modern day musical score attached to the soundtrack. 

This may appeal to the ADHD crowd, woman and gay men, but I suspect The Great Gatsby will have to be four star film, a 100% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes before anyone beyond that small demographic will see it.