Steven Spielberg is commonly famous for his iconic science fiction movies. In his career of 50 years, he has never done a musical before. People are quite excited about the movie. “Jurrasic Park “, “Jaws “, “E.T” and even war films like “Saving Private Ryan” and “Schindler’s list”. Steven Spielberg’s movies have inspired a lot of big names in the industry as well. Winona Ryder was inspired by the movie and that was one of the reasons why she took the role of “Joyce“.Steven Spielberg’s movies are sacred for people who love science fiction movies. However, it is quite shocking news for people.
The original “West Side Story” movie was a huge success. It is one of the best musicals. The original “West Side Story” won 10 Oscars. It starred big names of the Hollywood like “Natalie Wood”. However, some people fear that it will be a huge flop for the director.
Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” Plot
Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” is written by the award-winning writer “Tony Kushner”. Tony won academic awards for movies like “Munich” and “Lincoln”. Westside Story is a modern-day musical based on Shakespeare’s ” Romeo and Juliet”. The two New York-based gangs will battle for control of the turf in the new upcoming movie. The situation becomes complicated when a member falls in love with the rival gang’s sister. The remake is going definitely going to follow the plot of the original movie.
“This story is not only a product of its time, but that time has returned, and it’s returned with a kind of social fury, he continued ” I really wanted to tell that Puerto Rican, Nuyorican experience of basically the migration to this country and the struggle to make a living and to have children, and to battle against the obstacles of xenophobia and racial prejudice.”
Cast
Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler are playing the lead roles in the movie. Ansel Elgort is famous for “The fault in our stars”. Maddie Ziegler rose to fame by appearing in SIA’s music videos. She is best known as a dancer. Rita Moreno is also going to be in the movie.
Spielberg said this about the diversity of the cast that the orginal movie lacked;
“They brought an authenticity,” Spielberg said. “They brought themselves, and everything they believe and everything about them — they brought that to the work. And there was so much interaction between the cast wanting to be able to commit to the Puerto Rican experience. They all represent, I think, diversity, both within the Puerto Rican, Nuyorican community as well as the broader Latinx community. And they took that seriously.”
He only wanted to hispanic actors to play the hispanic roles.
Release Date
Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” is expected to release in this year in December. The release of the movie was delayed due to the pandemic.
Aliza Fatima is a writer/author at The Panther Tech.