Famed director Steven Spielberg has been rumored to be thinking about remaking the renowned Broadway musical "West Side Story," and it seems like the speculations are coming true.
The musical, which premiered on stage in 1957 and on the big screens in 1961, finds its plot basis on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." The story tells of Maria and Tony, star-crossed lovers from two different Upper West Side groups of different ethnicities, the Jets and the Sharks. The 1961 film featured Natalie Wood as Maria and Richard Beymer as Tony, and continued on to win 10 Academy Awards during its fame.
In 2014, Spielberg gushed about the musical in a "Good Morning America" interview, sharing that he thought that it was "the greatest piece of musical literature." According to CNN, a source told The Hollywood Reporter that Spielberg has been dreaming of adapting the musical 'for decades,' and that the 'potential remake' may have playwright Tony Kushner as its screenplay writer under the co-production of Fox and MGM. Kushner is a Pulitzer prize-winning playwright for the 1993 drama "Angels of America" that told of the AIDS crisis in the LGBT community.
The play later on became an HBO miniseries. If "West Side Story" remake comes to fruition, this will not be the first time Kushner and Spielberg will work together, as Kushner has also been Spielberg's screenwriter for the films "Munich" and "Lincoln."
While waiting for more details on the exciting "West Side Story" remake, Spielberg fans can look forward to the release of Spielberg's latest animated film "The BFG." The summer 2016 film revolves around an unlikely friendship between Sophie, a young child, and an elderly giant (whom she names "BFG"), after the giant kidnaps the child. Together, they set on an adventure to defeat the man-eating evil giants that try to conquer the world.
According to Variety, although "The BFG" is based on Roald Dahl's book of the same name, Spielberg added some elements to the movie plot. He explained that, he "had a great relationship" with the Dahl estate as they signed off the edits and read every draft he had in order to ensure their approval. He further noted that the film is "the closest [he's] come to telling a love story," as the movie highlights a grandfather-granddaughter like relationship between Sophie and her BFG.
"The BFG" will premiere on July 20 in the United States.