Leonardo DiCaprio struggles to find Sydney's West Egg for Gatsby filming

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who’s set to arrive later this month in Sydney to shoot the title role in The Great Gatsby film remake, has seemingly failed to secure his desired rental requirement of a harbourside Sydney bolthole with a tennis court.

DiCaprio, who topped the latest list of Hollywood's highest-earning actors according to Forbes.com, had his scouts looking for luxury rental lodgings with a $30,000 a week limit.

There are just 21 eastern suburb Sydney harbourfront homes with tennis courts, and eight have the tennis court directly on the water.

After the hunt for the very best of homes met dead ends over recent weeks, DiCaprio’s search party has yet to sign off on any on the short list of alternate accommodation.

“They really wanted a sports court for him, plus a gym,” one leasing insider says. “Perhaps the court was for tennis or maybe basketball?”

Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann is set to film a new 3D version of The Great Gatsby in Sydney next month with backing from the US studio giant Warner Bros. Fox Studios at Centennial Park in Sydney will be the production base for the film, with other parts of NSW also to be used during the filming.

Gatsby tells the F. Scott Fitzgerald's story of Nick Carraway, played by Spiderman's Toby Maguire, an idealistic yet naive Midwesterner lured into the lavish world of glamorous parties and fast cars belonging to his millionaire neighbour Jay Gatsby, played by DiCaprio.

Forbes listed DiCaprio as earning US$77 million, jumping from fifth to first place, after two box office hits last year, Shutter Island and Inception, which between them earned more than US$1 billion.

In his next films he'll play FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover.

Forbes compiled its highest earning list based on earning after speaking to celebrity agents, lawyers, producers and industry insiders to estimate what each actor earned for the year ended May 1.

Jason Clarke, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher and Elizabeth Debicki, fresh out of the Victorian College of the Arts, are among the other actors set to arrive to help Luhrmann revive the American literary classic.

The production will inject more than $120 million into the NSW economy, with an estimated 275 crew during pre-production since March; then more than 400 cast and crew during principal photography, and the 150 in post-production and visual effects employment.