Baz Lurhmann can be somewhat of a polarizing director.  He emphasizes style and flash above all else, putting together unique, but anachronistic material like Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge. You can say that he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but he’s a director who you can never describe as boring.

Four years after his critical and financial flop Australia, Lurhmann is back, re-teaming with Romeo + Juliet star Leonardo DiCaprio for an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic The Great Gatsby.

Now, I never read Gatsby, so I can’t speak one lick of how “accurate” this looks, but based on the first trailer (below), Lurhmann once again is grabbing your eyeballs and not letting go, pushing this period piece into some bleeding edge film making.  If possible, I recommend cranking up the trailer to HD and watching in full screen for the full effect.

The cast is pretty stacked, too, mixing DiCaprio with Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Isla Fischer, amongst others, and given the prime release date, is clearly being eyed for Oscar by Warner Bros.  Either way, this certainly looks very interesting, and will be another movie to look for during the stacked Holiday 2012 season.

The Great Gatsby hits theaters on December 25th, 2012.