Existing comment:
The Great Gatsby
Robert Redford, born 1937
Mia Farrow, born 1946
After forty-nine-year-old Marlon Brando declined Paramount Pictures' financial offer to play the title role in a film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1920s classic, The Great Gatsby, Robert Redford wondered, "Didn't anyone at Paramount bother to read the novel?" In age -- thirty-eight -- and appearance, Redford was a better fit for the role. Moreover, he had become the "most sought-after actor" in Hollywood with the recent release of two popular 1973 films, The Way We Were and The Sting. Meanwhile, Mia Farrow, who asked to play the role of Daisy Buchanan, passed a screen test and infused the film with a "mystical quality, a kind of spoiled arrogance, which made her especially interesting." Ultimately the film fell flat with many critics. Yet it was a profitable hit at the box office, due largely to the cinematic chemistry between Redford and Farrow, as this cover image suggests.
Steve Schapiro, 1974
Time cover, March 18, 1974 |