Summary:
Mumbai, Dec 7 (PTI) Filmmaker Steven Spielberg says he had to be fearless to be able to make "West Side Story", a reimagining of the beloved Broadway musical of the same name, and credits the films he helmed so far for giving him the "courage".An adaptation of the famed 1957 Broadway musical of the same title, the movie depicts the love story between Rachel Zegler and Ansel Elgort"s Maria and Tony, whose ill-fated romance fans the bitter rivalry between local New York street gangs the Sharks and the Jets.The stage musical also saw a movie adaptation in 1961, directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins.In a 10-min video, shared by the YouTube page of 20th Century Studios India, the legendary filmmaker was engaged in a virtual conversation with Bollywood director Shoojit Sircar, who had performed the play in his theatre days.Sircar, known for films like "Piku", "October" and "Sardar Udham", noted that Spielberg has become more "fearless", and to this, the 74-year-old director said he had to go all out to make his first feature-length musical."I think everybody, when they"re older, gets more fearless.
Maybe not everybody, but I certainly needed to be fearless in order to take this on.
Because this is obviously based on the great Broadway musical, but it will be liberally compared to the 1961 film.
Both the 1961 film and the Broadway musical owe a huge debt of gratitude to William Shakespeare, and Romeo and Juliet."So I didn"t feel like I was violating anything because I don"t really necessarily love remakes.
But I didn"t consider this a remake.
I consider this a reimagined, more authentic and more contemporary version of the original musical," Spielberg said.The filmmaker dubbed the Broadway show as "arguably the greatest American musical" and said even though it has been reimaged countless times across the world -- onscreen and on stage-- every interpretation is different."I felt that because it is so liberally reproduced again and again, every new cast brings a different interpretation.