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Spielberg to remake West Side Story


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True that ironlips... I was thinking of an earlier time with those two groups but thinking about it realize I shot myself in the foot. Some members did get together with not so nice results. People like Meyer Lansky, Benjamin (Bugsy) Segal from the Jewish group and Charles (Lucky) Luciano of the Italians. For anyone not a history buff they basically started a new era of organized crime.

well guess I took this off the rails pretty well

ps also a fan of Steve Buscemi

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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3 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

 

Oops

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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To get back to the casting discussions from a few months back, one thing that many seem to forget is that the whole Hollywood film-making enterprise is a business, with the primary purpose of making money. While the the theater-loving community would absolutely buy tickets to see a film version of WSS or any other Broadway musical with true theate actors, the general populace would not. This is the reason why Natalie Wood was cast in the original.  She was a box office draw. Same with Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and any number of other movie musicals, whether in the golden age or today. This is why we got Russel Crowe in Les Miserables.  Sometimes casting directors hit the sweet spot of star quality and musical theater talent (Catherine Zeta Jones, Hugh Jackman) but sometimes you get Pierce Brosnan. If this project happens, let's pray for wisdom on the producers' and directors' parts and lots of well-known, talented 20-somethings who can sing and dance.

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59 minutes ago, FLBuzcut said:

To get back to the casting discussions from a few months back, one thing that many seem to forget is that the whole Hollywood film-making enterprise is a business, with the primary purpose of making money. While the the theater-loving community would absolutely buy tickets to see a film version of WSS or any other Broadway musical with true theate actors, the general populace would not. This is the reason why Natalie Wood was cast in the original.  She was a box office draw. Same with Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and any number of other movie musicals, whether in the golden age or today. This is why we got Russel Crowe in Les Miserables.  Sometimes casting directors hit the sweet spot of star quality and musical theater talent (Catherine Zeta Jones, Hugh Jackman) but sometimes you get Pierce Brosnan. If this project happens, let's pray for wisdom on the producers' and directors' parts and lots of well-known, talented 20-somethings who can sing and dance.

Best I can tell, they seem to be doing an open call for the leads, so as to make the actors more accurate to the characters they're representing than, say, Natalie Wood (Russian/Ukrainian ancestry in her 20s) playing Puerto Rican teenager. Which, good for them.

Banking on the names "Spielberg" and "West Side Story" to bring people to the theater isn't a bad gamble, I don't think.

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30 minutes ago, ironlips said:

A very astute analysis from FLBuzcut.

Thank you, my friend.

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I reember when Hollywood created new content, not remakes of classics you cant possibly improve upon

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55 minutes ago, ftwdrummer said:

Best I can tell, they seem to be doing an open call for the leads, so as to make the actors more accurate to the characters they're representing than, say, Natalie Wood (Russian/Ukrainian ancestry in her 20s) playing Puerto Rican teenager. Which, good for them.

Banking on the names "Spielberg" and "West Side Story" to bring people to the theater isn't a bad gamble, I don't think.

And thank goodness today there are more ethnic (meaning non-white) performers to choose from instead of ethnic (meaning a white who kinda maybe will pass) performer.

As for the director being a name helping.... Annie as directed by Academy award winner John Houston. Too bad Annie was nothing like Treasure of the Sierra Madre

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52 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

And thank goodness today there are more ethnic (meaning non-white) performers to choose from instead of ethnic (meaning a white who kinda maybe will pass) performer.

As for the director being a name helping.... Annie as directed by Academy award winner John Houston. Too bad Annie was nothing like Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Or A Chorus Line directed by Academy Award winner Richard Attenborough, which had a very different result from his Gandhi. 

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