With this film being "shelved" due to controversy and not released as originally intended, 2018 marks the first time since 1981 that Woody Allen did not have a feature film released in theaters. In fact, since his directorial debut in Take the Money and Run (1969), Allen has written and directed a feature film in every single subsequent year except for 1970, 1974, 1976, 1981, and now 2018. So, in the past 50 years, there have only been 5 years in total in which the world has not seen a Woody Allen film released in theaters.
At the end of the film Gatsby cites two lines "The roaring traffic's boom. Silence in my lonely room." Ashleigh says she knows it, it's from Shakespeare. In fact it is from the Cole Porter song Night and Day.
Timothée Chalamet's maternal grandfather Harold Flender wrote for Sid Caesar in the 1950s, along with Woody Allen. When Allen later cast Timothée in the film, he was initially unaware of the family relation.
Jude Law said in November 2018 that it's "a terrible shame" his Woody Allen movie got shelved. At that time, there was no official release date for the film.
Woody Allen claims in his memoirs "Apropos of Nothing" (2020) that the real reason Timothée Chalamet donated his salary from the movie was that "he needed to do that as he was up for an Oscar for Call Me by Your Name (2017), and he and his agent felt he had a better chance of winning if he denounced me".
This is Woody Allen's 48th feature-length film as director, which includes his television film Don't Drink the Water (1994).
Timothée Chalamet announced on Instagram that he will be donating his entire salary from his work on this film to the charities: the LGBT Center in New York, Time's Up and RAINN, an anti-sexual violence organization.
Very well known for making films in New York City and being associated with the city, apart from New York Stories (1989) where he directed the segment 'Oedipus Wrecks', and the tele-movie The Concert for New York City (2001), where he also directed a segment, surprisingly, this is the very first full feature film directed by Woody Allen with the words "New York" featured in the title. However, Woody Allen has made a number of movies featuring parts of New York in the title. These are: Manhattan (1979), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), and Broadway Danny Rose (1984) - with "Manhattan" and "Broadway" being used twice each in Woody Allen theatrical feature film titles.
Along with Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), this is the second time that Rebecca Hall has starred in a film written and directed by Woody Allen.
As is sometimes the case in recent years, the central character (in this case, Gatsby) narrates the film by deliberately imitating Woody Allen's distinctive cadence.
Rebecca Hall donated her full wage from this movie to the Time's Up movement after reconsidering sexual assault allegations against the director in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
The fact that Gatsby and Chan get their first kiss out of the way (in the short film scene) is like Annie Hall, and the rain in New York reflects the famous scene in Manhattan... the latter which this film has many similarities, in particular, various couples looking for romances elsewhere.
Gatsby's cell phone could not possibly connect with the outside world from inside the Temple of Dendur at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with its stone walls five feet thick.
There are two actors with the same names as classic (and long-dead) actors: Will Rogers and Rory Calhoun.