West Side Story – Spielberg remake (1 Viewer)

[Chelsearicky]

People here spend their time online reading about films. We are simply not an indicative sample of the wider public conciseness. They are going to need to reach a much wider audience than just us, and those people don't know the film exists yet because it hasn't been marketed yet.



Is this a serious question? Because I can absolutely see a scenario in which case younger audiences wouldn't pay attention to a remake of an antiquated title from 59 years ago. I'm not saying that I agree with that view, but there are young audiences who might. When I was in drama class in high school, which was an elective, I was the only person in the entire class who had ever heard of The Sound of Music. The textbook mentioned Julie Andrews, and when asked by a student who she was, the only movie that the teacher cited that caused any recognition at all was Shrek 2, because she was the voice of Fiona's mother. Not Mary Poppins. Not The Sound of Music. Shrek 2. My high school experience does not reflect the entirety of young audiences, but it does reflect some of them, and their awareness of famous musical films was sorely lacking.



Not right now, it isn't.



Well, a lot of audiences in the younger generation have and it was obviously Disney's intention to use him as part of the marketing outreach. The Fault in Our Stars, Baby Driver, etc.



Why? Personal taste is personal taste and has nothing to do with relevancy, or how many other people like the same thing. I love musicals, including WSS, but there are musicals that I don't like. A fan of the genre is not required to be a fan of every single thing in the genre. if @Malcolm R doesn't like West Side Story, that just comes down to his preferences.

I think it's going to be a difficult sell to modern audiences. Singing, dancing street gangs and your biggest cast name is Ansel Elgort. I enjoy musicals, but I've never been able to work up much interest for any version of WSS.

Spielberg with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep in The Post could only swing about $80 million domestic. I'm not sure this will reach that level, and the budget for this is listed at $100 million.

I think it's going to be a difficult sell to modern audiences. Singing, dancing street gangs and your biggest cast name is Ansel Elgort. I enjoy musicals, but I've never been able to work up much interest for any version of WSS.

Spielberg with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep in The Post could only swing about $80 million domestic. I'm not sure this will reach that level, and the budget for this is listed at $100 million.

 

[Chelsearicky]

I sincerely doubt Disney will be using Ansel Elgort as part of its marketing outreach for 'WSS'. The sexual assault accusations have not gone away..they are merely in temporary abeyance. As soon as an opening date is announced and the trailer hits theaters, expect this issue to re-emerge with a vengeance , and the cancel crowd to pounce.

 

[Jake Lipson]

As soon as an opening date is announced

You mean, two days ago when the opening date was announced as December 10?

I'm not going to sit here and deny that the allegations are an issue that the marketing team will need to work around. That's why I brought them up in this thread in the first place when they surfaced. But I don't see how they can not have him in the marketing.

He is playing Tony. He is one of the two leads and is in pretty much the whole movie. The only way to get rid of his influence on the film would be to reshoot pretty much the entire thing, which would be neither practical nor cheap. It's not like taking Kevin Spacey out of All the Money in the World because that character was a supporting role in the first place.

The press around the allegations have simmered down of late. His accuser deleted her Twitter account and has not (yet) pursued actual legal action. If these accusations do become major news again, that is certainly a problem for the film. But if people are going to boycott the film over them, then the entire thing is DOA anyway regardless of how it is or is not marketed.

Allegations are a weird thing. Sometimes, bad behavior can ruin a career and sometimes not. There's vide of Ezra Miller putting his hands on a woman's throat, but Warner Bros. is keeping him in both Fantastic Beasts 3 and The Flash movie. So, you never know.

 

[Chelsearicky]

You mean, two days ago when the opening date was announced as December 10?

I'm not going to sit here and deny that the allegations are an issue that the marketing team will need to work around. That's why I brought them up in this thread in the first place when they surfaced. But I don't see how they can not have him in the marketing.

He is playing Tony. He is one of the two leads and is in pretty much the whole movie. The only way to get rid of his influence on the film would be to reshoot pretty much the entire thing, which would be neither practical nor cheap. It's not like taking Kevin Spacey out of All the Money in the World because that character was a supporting role in the first place.

The press around the allegations have simmered down of late. His accuser deleted her Twitter account and has not (yet) pursued actual legal action. If these accusations do become major news again, that is certainly a problem for the film. But if people are going to boycott the film over them, then the entire thing is DOA anyway regardless of how it is or is not marketed.

Allegations are a weird thing. Sometimes, bad behavior can ruin a career and sometimes not. There's vide of Ezra Miller putting his hands on a woman's throat, but Warner Bros. is keeping him in both Fantastic Beasts 3 and The Flash movie. So, you never know.

These accusations will indeed become major news again even if the accuser herself remains in the background. Count on it.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Count on it.

We'll see what happens.

 

[Tino]

These accusations will indeed become major news again even if the accuser herself remains in the background. Count on it.

I think I’m pretty up to date with movie related news and I don’t recall these accusations. I doubt they will become major news again.

 

[TravisR]

I think I’m pretty up to date with movie related news and I don’t recall these accusations. I doubt they will become major news again.

Yeah, never say never but that allegation seems like the type of thing I'll see a few random people mention again on Twitter but unless more information or accusations come out, it won't gain traction. I didn't see much about it when it first came out so that's another reason I don't expect it to really resurface in another 15 months either.

Just so no one gets pissed at me, I'm not saying that's good or bad, I'm only saying what I expect to see happen as the situation currently stands.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I don’t recall these accusations.

If you would like to know what we are talking about, you can go back a bit in this thread. I first posted about the allegations on June 19 in post #519 on page 31. There was a bit of discussion around them at that time. Elgort responded to them by saying that he had a brief relationship with this person which was entirely consensual. The accuser deleted her Twitter account, which was the venue in which she made her accusation, and the press coverage around them just kind of disappeared. If he did do something wrong, he should answer for that. But there is a lot we don't know about the situation, and the accuser has not yet pursued legal recourse as far as has been reported to the public.

While it is entirely possible that they could resurface, it is equally possible that they could not, especially since the film is now well over a year away from being released.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Rachel Ziegler did an interview about the film with Vogue.

In 2021’s West Side Story, Rachel Zegler Will Deliver a Maria for the Moment

We meet the actor on the brink of her biggest year yet.

www.vogue.com

 

[Jake Lipson]

Here's a really good interview with Ariana DeBose (Anita.). She is appearing now in the film adaptation of The Prom on Netflix, but there's also discussion here of West Side Story. The WSS stuff starts around the 32 minute mark.

 

[ptb2017fr]

When will any of these movies get seen? WEst Side Story, Dune, Wonder Woman84, No Time To Die, Black Widow, The French Dispatch with Timothée Chalamet, Greyhound, The Kings Man, Morbius, À Quiet Place 2, Jurassic World: Dominion Avatar sequels, and The Batman. Don’t want to see on a tv screen first, and I love hearing people reacting, laughing,crying, annoying themselves around me in the cinema.

 

[Wayne_j]

When will any of these movies get seen? WEst Side Story, Dune, Wonder Woman84, No Time To Die, Black Widow, The French Dispatch with Timothée Chalamet, Greyhound, The Kings Man, Morbius, À Quiet Place 2, Jurassic World: Dominion Avatar sequels, and The Batman. Don’t want to see on a tv screen first, and I love hearing people reacting, laughing,crying, annoying themselves around me in the cinema.

There is a good chance that this movie will be seen when it is currently scheduled to be, next December.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

When will any of these movies get seen? WEst Side Story, Dune, Wonder Woman84, No Time To Die, Black Widow, The French Dispatch with Timothée Chalamet, Greyhound, The Kings Man, Morbius, À Quiet Place 2, Jurassic World: Dominion Avatar sequels, and The Batman. Don’t want to see on a tv screen first, and I love hearing people reacting, laughing,crying, annoying themselves around me in the cinema.

These should all play in cinemas. The Warner owned titles will debut in theaters and streaming simultaneously so that the viewer has their choice of how to see them, Batman and Jurassic World aren’t expected to be ready until after the pandemic is expected to be under control anyway, and Disney keeps moving their biggest titles ahead to whenever they can be seen in theaters first.

Only one you won’t see in theaters is Greyhound because Sony sold all distribution rights to Apple for a set period of time.

 

[Jake Lipson]

When will any of these movies get seen?

West Side Story is currently scheduled for release on December 10, 2021. Considering recent news about vaccines has been encouraging, I am hopeful that we'll be able to see it by then. I understand the desire to see it, but it is important that they wait until it is safe since they want to maintain this as a theatrical release. In the meantime, if you're looking for something involving the cast of West Side Story, Ariana DeBose (Anita) is really good in The Prom, and you can watch that on Netflix right now.

As for Greyhound, Josh is correct. That ship has sailed. It's AppleTV+ or bust.

 

[Nick*Z]

Won't be seeing this when it comes out, as I am getting sick and tired of Hollywood remaking its past with inferior updates. Ben-Hur (2016 vs. 1959), oh please!!!! The original West Side Story was a superior coming together of rarefied talents and a multi-Oscar-winning classic directed peerlessly by Robert Wise. I can't believe Spielberg convinced himself he could do better. Perhaps, if nothing else, it will allow Disney/Fox to revisit the original master for a new 4K release of the original movie, or at least, a better remastered Blu-ray to correct the egregious edge effects in the opener and that hideous fade to black between the main titles and opening shot. But the remake - forget it.

 

[TravisR]

Won't be seeing this when it comes out, as I am getting sick and tired of Hollywood remaking its past with inferior updates. Ben-Hur (2016 vs. 1959), oh please!!!! The original West Side Story was a superior coming together of rarefied talents and a multi-Oscar-winning classic directed peerlessly by Robert Wise. I can't believe Spielberg convinced himself he could do better.

I don't know that anyone sets out to remake a movie with the idea that they'll do it better. I assume he feels that he'll do it differently and tell the same basic story to a modern audience that has never seen the original and wouldn't watch it because it's "old".

 

[Jake Lipson]

Spielberg knows the original film is fantastic. He is one of a very small group of directors in Hollywood who can have his choice of any project he wants.

I don't think he would bother remaking something if he didn't have something new to say.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I've deleted a couple of posts from this thread. Let's keep politics out of this thread. Also, if you're going to report a post then do so without announcing it and let the forum's moderators handle it from there.

 

[PMF]

Mr. Spielberg is nobody’s fool; not even for himself. And being that the release of a remake does not erase nor destroy the camera negative of the original film, I will attend his West Side Story as I would with any Broadway revival; one part with arms folded over in an “I bet” stance and the other part, secretly hoping to be bowled over, inspired and getting the chance to have the bragging rights of saying, “I saw it on opening night”.

 

[Josh Dial]

Mr. Spielberg is nobody’s fool; not even for himself. And being that the release of a remake does not erase nor destroy the camera negative of the original film, I will attend his West Side Story as I would with any Broadway revival; one part with arms folded over in an “I bet” stance and the other part, secretly hoping to be bowled over, inspired and getting the chance to have the bragging rights of saying, “I saw it on opening day”.

Co-signed. This is a great outlook.