THE GREAT GATSBY Soundtrack Released; Film Opens in PH May 17

Manila, Philippines, May 10, 2013--MCA Music Inc./Universal Music Group has just released the movie soundtrack of Tony nominee and acclaimed filmmaker Baz Luhrmann's book-to-screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's great American novel "The Great Gatsby."

The movie soundtrack features mostly rap and hip-hop songs performed by Jay-Z, the album's executive producer; and his wife, Beyonce Knowles, who does a cover version of the late soul singer Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black," which at first irked Winehouse's father, Mitch.

The album also includes songs recorded by Fergie, will.i.am, Gotye, The xx, Florence & The Machine, Bryan Ferry Orchestra, and Lana Del Rey, whose song "Young and Beautiful" is the album's lead single.

The album's main producer is Anton Monsted, Luhrmann's music producer for "Moulin Rouge," a romantic jukebox movie musical, which tells the love story between an English poet Christian and a cabaret star/courtesan Satine.

Luhrmann's newest opus is a 3D film adaptation of the critically-acclaimed novel set in Long Island and Manhattan, New York City during the 1920s, where Midwesterner, aspiring bond broker Nick Carraway, played by Tobey Maguire, is lured into the opulent world of his neighbor, a self-made gentleman Jay Gatsby, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. However, Carraway gets exposed to the dark secrets about Gatsby's new moneyed lifestyle, where "delusion is as important to man's happiness" (in reference to Christian Nestell Bovee); and a big disaster awaits.

Luhrmann tells MTV News that over the last two years, he has worked with Jay-Z on the film: "[At first] I showed [Jay-Z] my little video of how we had to find a way of making the jazz [the predominant style of music during the roaring 1920s], blend it between hip-hop and all kinds of music [which could make the story more relevant to today's audiences].

"'And I was about halfway through it.' And I said, 'Maybe you'd be interested?' And he looked up like, 'What are you talking about interested? We've got to do this!'"

Besides DiCaprio and Maguire, Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby," which has received mixed reviews, also stars Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan, Elizabeth Debicki as JorDan Baker, Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson, Jason Clarke as George B. Wilson, and Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Wolfsheim.

The New York Post's Lou Lumenick gives the film 3.5 out of four stars, saying, "Given the director's penchant for visual bombast and the superhero-sized budget at his disposal, it's also surprisingly satisfying (and text-faithful) as a dramatization of F. Scott's Fitzgerald's classic novel--thanks to stellar work by Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role and Tobey Maguire as his neighbor and only true friend, Nick Carraway...

"...DiCaprio makes a splendid, Oscar-caliber Gatsby, capturing the dark side behind his affected bonhomie as no actor has done since Alan Ladd in 1949. He's perfectly abetted by Maguire's hard-drinking Nick, whose yearnings may never be fulfilled. The actor also gives a fine reading of the narration taken mostly from the book, which also appears from time to time in text form on the screen. That's one way to get young audiences to read the classics."

The film opens across the Philippines on Friday, May 17.

The full movie soundtrack list is as follows:

1. 100$ Bill - JAY Z

2. Back To Black - Beyoncé x André 3000

3. Bang Bang - will.i.am

4. A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got) - Fergie + Q Tip + GoonRock

5. Young And Beautiful - Lana Del Rey

6. Love Is The Drug - Bryan Ferry with The Bryan Ferry Orchestra

7. Over The Love - Florence + The Machine

8. Where The Wind Blows - Coco O. of Quadron

9. Crazy in Love - Emeli Sandé and The Bryan Ferry Orchestra

10. Together - The xx

11. Hearts A Mess - Gotye

12. Love Is Blindness - Jack White

13. Into the Past - Nero

14. Kill and Run - Sia