When Australia’s Daily Telegraph newspaper named Elizabeth Debicki as one to watch this past January, they couldn’t have realized just how psychic they turned out to be. Deadline reports that the fresh faced newcomer, who doesn’t have a single screen credit to her name, has been personally tapped by director Baz Lurhmann to play Jordan Baker, golfer and love interest to Tobey Maguire’s Nick Carraway in a new 3D adaptation of “The Great Gatsby”.

Debicki comes to the project straight from the Victorian College of the Arts, the same school attended by fellow rising Aussie star Isabel Lucas. Luhrmann did not come to the decision to cast a complete unknown without hesitation. “It was a surprising result, but Elizabeth’s grasp of the material and her chemical connectivity to Tobey Maguire, in addition to her striking, athletic appearance, had us in a place where we were fully confident and ready to take the leap of giving the role of Jordan Baker to what, I guess, people would term ‘a discovery,’ ” the director tells Deadline. “We are thrilled.”

Debicki, who landed an agent and a role in a film within three weeks of graduating from drama school, joins an all-star cast that includes, in addition to Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan and Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson. Ben Affleck had been offered the part of Tom Buchanan, but had to decline due to prior filming commitments on his directorial venture “Argo”. Filming is expected to commence late summer in Australia.