This Just In

Whistle Along to the Teaser Trailer for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story

Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler co-star in the legendary Hollywood director's take on the 1961 Best Picture winner

With a legacy and cultural influence as large as the Statue of Liberty, it's hard to imagine why anyone would feel the need to remake West Side Story. But Steven Spielberg remaking West Side Story is a different matter, a “what if?” that seems to make more sense the longer you think about it. It's a notion furthered by the release of the first teaser for his long-delayed remake of the 1961 classic, which was supposed to hit theatres last December but was pushed back until this December on account of the pandemic. Check it out below:

As one has come to expect from a master of popular entertainment, this take on West Side Story – the footage of which came to us as part of last night's Oscar telecast – exemplifies all that is great about Spielberg the filmmaker: a peerless sense of camera placement, an unprecedented kind of polish, a sweeping sense of what makes a proper Hollywood picture sing.

Spielberg himself has long talked about his desire to direct a proper musical, of course – he even tested the waters during the opening of his 1984 adventure Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, kicking off the film with an extensive song and dance sequence set to Cole Porter's “Anything Goes.” The footage here, a realisation of this long-standing ambition, is overlaid with a haunting, almost eerie version of “Somewhere,” one of the musical's most beloved songs.

West Side Story, which stars Baby Driver's Ansel Elgort and newcomer Rachel Zegler as star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria, was written by Spielberg's favourite scribe Tony Kushner, and is set to recount the same iconic tale as the original musical, as waring street gangs – the Sharks and the Jets – do battle against a backdrop of 1950s New York. Though one can probably expect an increased political and social edge to go alongside the big numbers this time round. Still, if there's a movie primed to get audiences back into theatres en masse, surely it's this one?

West Side Story is scheduled for worldwide release in December 2021.

Other Features

Repertory Rundown: What to Watch in London This Week, From Little Women to Sergio Leone

From classics to cult favourites, our team highlight some of the best one-off screenings and re-releases showing this week in the capital

Repertory Rundown: What to Watch in London This Week, From Coppola to Cross of Iron

From classics to cult favourites, our team highlight some of the best one-off screenings and re-releases showing this week in the capital

20 Best Films of 2023 (So Far)

With the year at the halfway point, our writers choose their favourite films, from daring documentaries to box office bombs

Repertory Rundown: What to Watch in London This Week, From Mistress America to The Man Who Wasn’t There

From classics to cult favourites, our team highlight some of the best one-off screenings and re-releases showing this week in the capital

Reviews

The Innocent review – 60s-inspired heist movie with an existential twist

In his fourth feature film, writer-director Louis Garrel explores with wit and tenderness the risk and worth of second chances

Baato review – Nepal’s past and future collide in an immersive, fraught documentary

A mountain trek intertwines with a road-building project, granting incisive, if underpowered, insight into a much underseen world

The Beanie Bubble review – a grim new low for the “corporate biopic” genre

With none of the saving graces of Tetris, Air, or Barbie, this ambition-free look at the Beanie Baby craze is pure mediocrity

Everybody Loves Jeanne review – thoroughly modern fable of grief, romantic confusion, and climate anxiety

Celine Deveaux's French-Portuguese debut can be too quirky for its own good, but a fantastically written lead character keeps it afloat