As part of this year’s Oscars, the first trailer has been released for Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic 1957 Broadway musical “West Side Story”.
The new film remains set in 1950s New York and follows a Puerto Rican immigrant named Maria (Rachel Zegler) as she falls in love with a white guy named Tony (Ansel Elgort), once a leader of a gang called The Jets, but now distancing himself from them as they have engaged in a battle with the Puerto Rican gang The Sharks. One complication? Maria’s brother Bernardo (David Alvarez) is the leader of The Sharks.
Spielberg endeavoured to make sure Hispanic performers played the ensemble of Hispanic characters, including many performers who actually hail from Puerto Rico.
Budgeted at $100 million, the new “West Side Story” will be released by 20th Century Studios in cinemas on December 10th.