Merrick here...

Even though Baz Luhrmann's AUSTRALIA didn't exactly set the world on fire (did it even smolder just a little?), seems the director is already moving onto his next project. He's optioned F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY.

The director, as Risky Biz first reported last month, also said that he has officially acquired rights to "Gatsby." Luhrmann sees the pre-Depression story as a wake-up call as the economy comes crashing down and another gilded age, as he sees it, comes to an end.

"If you wanted to show a mirror to people that says, 'You've been drunk on money,' they're not going to want to see it. But if you reflected that mirror on another time they'd be willing to."

He added, "People will need an explanation of where we are and where we've been, and 'The Great Gatsby' can provide that explanation."

...says THIS PIECE in Hollywood Reporter.

Luhrmann also indicates that he's going to get this project up and running faster than he usually does in order to best exploit the film's "timeliness".

There's a character in THE GREAT GATSBY named Sigourney Howard, which is where Sigourney Weaver got her name - and she fought ALIENS, which makes this news at least a teeny weeny bit (barely, maybe desperately) Geeky.