The Great Gatsby TV Adaptation

A+E Studios and ITV Studios America in association with Groundswell Productions are working on the definitive TV adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

The dramatic event series is from writer and executive producer Michael Hirst (Vikings, The Tudors, Elizabeth) and executive producer Michael London (Sideways, Milk). This reimagining of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel will dramatize for the first time the full expanse of what made the book an American classic, exploring the backstories of its larger-than-life characters.

Under the guidance of consulting producer Farah Jasmine Griffin, the event series will also delve into New York’s African-American community of the time and the vibrant musical subculture developing in the 1920s.

This version of The Great Gatsby has the support and approval of Blake Hazard, a great-granddaughter of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and a trustee of the Fitzgerald estate, who also serves as consulting producer.

“There are few stories in the pantheon of American literature that transcend time like The Great Gatsby,” said Barry Jossen, president and head of A+E Studios. “Along with our partners at ITV Studios America and Groundswell Productions, A+E Studios is privileged to bring this powerful, complex work to life under the watchful eye of the incomparable Michael Hirst and the blessing of Fitzgerald family member Blake Hazard. As evidenced by his pilot script, Michael stays true to Fitzgerald’s novel while building on that legacy with a modern vision that will be more reflective of America both then and now, including an enhanced exploration of the female characters. We are currently searching for a director and are excited to bring this out to the market.”

“I seem to have lived with Gatsby most of my life, reading it first as a schoolboy, later teaching it at Oxford in the 1970s then re-reading it periodically ever since,” said Hirst. “As the critic Lionel Trilling once wrote: ‘The Great Gatsby is still as fresh as when it first appeared, it has even gained in weight and relevance.’ Today, as America seeks to reinvent itself once again, is 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. Fitzgerald’s profoundly romantic vision does not prevent him examining and exposing the darker underbelly of the American experience, which is why the story speaks to both tragedy and hope, and why it continues to resonate today.”

“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,” said Hazard. “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.”