Steven Spielberg Considering 'West Side Story' Remake

Credit: United Artists

In one of the most surprising remake stories in ages, 20th Century Fox is apparently looking to do a new version of the iconic 1961 musical West Side Story, which won 10 Academy Awards and spawned one of the most successful soundtracks of all-time. Stranger still is the news that Steven Spielberg could be the one to bring the film to the big-screen, as it's reportedly a “passion project” of his.

Admittedly, it would be pretty interesting to see what Spielberg does with West Side Story, since he's never actually helmed a musical before. And the story, a Romeo & Juliet romance between an Italian man and a Puerto Rican woman caught between two warring gangs in New York City, plays into Spielberg's heartstring-tugging storytelling sensibilities. The original earned Oscars for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (George Chakiris), Best Supporting Actress (Rita Moreno), Best Director (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins), and six other awards, so Spielberg would have a hell of a legacy to live up to. But the existence of a recent Broadway revival, which ran from 2009-2011, shows that there is a market for the show, which endures to this day as one of the most successful musicals of all-time in the pop culture imagination.

Of course, everything is purely speculatory at this point, since the project apparently depends upon whether or not Dreamworks CEO Stacey Snyder jumps ship to Fox after her contract expires at the end of the year. Still, the fact that this is even under consideration shows that the interest for a remake of West Side Story is there. Here's hoping they don't end up making a contemporary, autotuned mess. If they make it at all, that is.

So what do you think? Is a remake in order? Or should they leave the original alone? Sound off in the comments!

Via: Entertainment Weekly