Jason Clarke Snags Key Role in 'The Great Gatsby' (Exclusive)

Jason Clarke has nabbed one of the final key roles in Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow.

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The filmmaker has lined up an A-list cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio as the wealthy and mysterious Jay Gatsby; Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, who in the novel is the narrator; Carey Mulligan as Gatsby's love, Daisy Buchanan; and Isla Fisher as Myrtle, a married woman having an affair with Buchanan.

Lurhmann has been leaning towards filling the last big roles with Australian actors, a move which will help the production secure tax credits as it moves towards a fall shoot in Down Under.

Rising male actor Joel Edgerton was cast in mid-May as Buchanan.

Clarke, who hails from Australia, will play George Wilson, the cuckholded husband of Myrtle and the man who brings the story to its climax.

Clarke starred in the TV shows Brotherhood and more recently The Chicago Code. He recently wrapped production on The Wettest County in the World, John Hillcoat’s ensemble period drama that also stars Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy, and has The Fields, the crime movie starring Sam Worthington and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, in the can.

Clarke is repped by UTA and Robert Stein Management.