The festival announced early on Tuesday [12] that a 3D screening of The Great Gatsby will open the event on May 15, the same day as its nationwide release in France.

Director Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce adapted F Scott Fitzgerald’s renowned tragedy of Jay Gatsby, the mysterious playboy who lived large in the US during the Roaring Twenties.

The A-list cast is led by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is confirmed to attend the festival with Luhrmann. Bollywood star and cast member Amitabh Bachchan and rapper Jay-Z will also travel to the Croisette. The cast includes Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Carey Mulligan and Isla Fisher.

Warner Bros produced with Village Roadshow and will distribute in 2D and 3D across most of the world with Village roadshow handling select territories. Gatsby is set to open in the US on May 10.

“It is a great honour for all those who have worked on The Great Gatsby to open the Cannes Film Festival,” said Luhrmann.

“We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts, not only because my first film Strictly Ballroom was screened there 21 years ago, but also because F Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of the most poignant and beautiful passages of his extraordinary novel just a short distance away at a villa outside St. Raphael.”