The Jets and the Sharks breach the surface in West Side Story first look

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Up and coming filmmaker Steven Spielberg is going from pop culture references and video game showdowns in 2018's READY PLAYER ONE to romance and dance-offs with the new adaptation of WEST SIDE STORY, due next year. The upcoming film version of the Broadway smash tells the tale of feuding, finger-snapping street gangs the Jets and the Sharks and the forbidden love between their ranks, and the first image has been released today and teases the rivalry, the romance and the upcoming musical numbers in dirty alleyways.

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A spin on the William Shakespeare play “Romeo and Juliet”, the original 1957 Broadway musical “West Side Story” from writer Arthur Laurents (music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) found Tony from the white Jets and Maria from the Puerto Rican Sharks falling in love – resulting in some inevitable drama. The first image shows Ansel Elgort’s Tony and Rachel Zegler’s Maria on the streets, their crews around them.  

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Perhaps more famous than the musical itself is the 1961 movie adaptation from Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, starring Natalie Wood as Maria and Richard Beymer as Tony. The movie went on to be a box office smash and eventually win 10 Oscars, including for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress, Rita Moreno. Spielberg has said his movie will be more in line with the original play than the movie, touching on social issues the 1961 movie didn’t get into as much.

Ariana DeBose as Anita, David Alvarez as Bernardo, Josh Andrés Rivera as Chino, Mike Faist as Riff, Ana Isabelle as Rosalia, Corey Stoll as Police Lieutenant Schrank, Brian d'Arcy James as Police Sergeant Krupke, and Moreno as Valentina. Moreno won her Oscar for playing Anita in the 1961 film, and she takes on an expanded, altered version of the Doc character from the original play.

Even Spielberg has quite the mountain to climb with this new project because although he's been wanting to tackle WEST SIDE STORY for some time, the original movie is still very popular and has a place in pop culture. As well, musicals have not exactly been his go-to genre on the big screen, and how he manages to tackle it all — especially with such revered material — will be interesting to see when the movie comes out in *checks watch* a year and a half. 

WEST SIDE STORY is in theaters on December 18, 2020.