West Side Story to be remade by Spielberg

STEVEN Spielberg is to remake West Side Story more than five decades after the much-loved movie musical first came out.

The original film was released in 1961 and went on to win ten Oscars. Now Spielberg is planning a new version in what will be his first musical.

The director, whose hits include ET, Jaws and Jurassic Park, will insist on Latino talent to play the principal roles. It follows Hollywood ‘whitewashing’ controversy over ethnic minority characters being played by white actors.

An advert by casting agents insists the roles of Maria, Anita and Bernardo go to Hispanic actors. In the original movie, the Puerto Rican character Maria was played by white actress Natalie Wood, and Bernardo by George Chakiris, the son of Greek immigrants. Anita was played by Rita Moreno, who is Puerto Rican and won an Oscar for her work.

West Side Story – based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – pits warring gangs from different ethnic backgrounds, the Sharks and the Jets, against each other in Manhattan.

The original stage version was a Broadway hit in 1957. Leonard Bernstein-scored songs include America and I Feel Pretty.