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Spielberg to remake West Side Story


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11 hours ago, BRASSO said:

 I would imagine... just a guess really... that Spielberg will bring his redo up to PC standards of today. For example, the character " Maria " lest we  forget in the 1961 WSS film was Hispanic in the script. But she was played by Natalie Wood. On NYC's Broadway, by Carol Lawrence. I like these highly talented singers. actresses, but both are about as Hispanic as Robert Wagner or Robert Goulet were... haha!. And in the WSS early 60's film, the venue was NYC. But if you watched the film, you'd come away from the film believing that few ( or no ) blacks lived in NYC tenements in 1961, nor anywhere else in NYC for that matter in 1961. So my guess, Spielberg will put his own modern updated twist on the music classic by Bernstein.... especially with the actors/ actresses he chooses for all the film's roles.

WSS Redo:

Calling Lin-Munuel Miranda..............the writer/creator/star of "Hamilton."    :whistle:

Elphaba    :flower:

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14 minutes ago, elphaba01 said:

WSS Redo:

Calling Lin-Munuel Miranda..............the writer/creator/star of "Hamilton."    :whistle:

Elphaba    :flower:

 Maybe.. who knows... Spielberg will probably figure it out and choose the actors/actresses well. He's had a few misses with his films over the years, but mostly he hits it out of the park, imo

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Will Christopher Walken be giving swimming lessons to the new Maria?

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Can't imagine how Spielberg makes this one WITHOUT changing the story. All his movies are about the righteous man versus the sinister establishment. In WSS, Jets and Sharks are both wrong. Spielberg isn't usually so even-handed (or in the case of Munich, historically accurate). Nor am I sure the hopeful overtones of the ending will play to his taste. We'll see. 

Biggest concern might be the music. That score is one of the greatest ever (which is why I'm fine with corps giving it a go). Will he be content to let greatness be? Or will he muck it up?

HH

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17 hours ago, Land_Surfer said:

It could be done as long as it's the original score and uses real Broadway stars / singers.  

As opposed to '61, when the actors for both Maria and Tony had to be dubbed over with real singers?

Of note, Bernstein did a recording in '85 with opera singers (Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carerras) ... it wasn't entirely a success.

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8 minutes ago, Eleran said:

As opposed to '61, when the actors for both Maria and Tony had to be dubbed over with real singers?

Of note, Bernstein did a recording in '85 with opera singers (Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carerras) ... it wasn't entirely a success.

this is a tidy summary of a discussion i had with another poster a couple pages back

i agree on all counts

beymer simply couldn't sing, and if you hear footage of wood's actual voice, it's not horrific or anything.  she could probably handle herself in roles in musicals like bye bye birdie and such, but wss is very much an operetta, and it had to have a stronger maria voice for the film

the recent phantom and les mis adaptations were garbage. gerard butler sounded like he was hacking up snot when he sang, and i found russell crowe as javert almost as offensive as pierce brosnan in mama mia (good lord). 

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37 minutes ago, Sideways said:

Will Christopher Walken be giving swimming lessons to the new Maria?

 Robert Wagner sure won't be.

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13 hours ago, BRASSO said:

But if you watched the film, you'd come away from the film believing that few ( or no ) blacks lived in NYC tenements in 1961, nor anywhere else in NYC for that matter in 1961. 

I'm not so sure about this.  It's supposed to be one single neighborhood, not all of NYC - just a couple streets, in fact.  And many NYC neighborhoods (especially historically) have often been dominated by just one or two ethnic mixes at a time.  While the city might be a melting pot, individual neighborhoods didn't necessarily look like ads for United Colors of Bennetton.

The ironic thing, however, is that the story purportedly takes place in the Lincoln Square neighborhood (which was largely replaced by Lincoln Center), and that neighborhood was in fact predominantly African American!  The story actually more closely parallels Hells Kitchen, which is to the immediate south of Lincoln Square, and where I lived for a decade in the 90s, and my grandfather was born and raised 100 years ago).  It was predominantly Irish in the first half of the 1900s (home of the famous Westies gang in the 60s-80s).  

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5 minutes ago, MikeD said:

 

Hey, we are getting "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" this year. What MORE could you want?    :cheer:

 

 The real singing voice of  Meryl Streep in any redo ?. The film is a comedy afterall.

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