Steven Spielberg's 'West Side Story' remake shares its first cast photo

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 6/17/2019, 1:21 p.m.
The Sharks and Jets made a rare civil appearance together in the first look at Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" …
"West Side Story" is back in a Steve Spielberg remake, coming out in 2020.

By Scottie Andrew and Saeed Ahmed, CNN

(CNN) -- The Sharks and Jets made a rare civil appearance together in the first look at Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" remake.

After three years of pre-production incubation, Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment production company shared an official cast photo Monday.

Front and center are "Baby Driver" breakout Ansel Elgort as Tony and Rachel Zegler, a high school theatre kid whose viral performance of Lady Gaga's "Shallow" caught Spielberg's attention, as Maria, surrounded by a cast of relative unknown as members of the rival gangs, the Sharks and Jets.

The musical, first adapted for film in 1961, spins Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" into a dark, dance-heavy meditation on racism, gang violence and the forbidden love that uproots the order (or lack thereof) in mid-century New York City.

Elgort and Zegler join Broadway regulars Ariana DeBose as Anita and David Alvarez as Bernardo.

Rita Moreno rounds out the cast as Valentina, a "reconceived and expanded" version of the character store owner Doc. She won an Oscar for her turn as Anita in the 1961 film, the first Hispanic woman to win the award.

The film, penned by playwright Tony Kushner and directed by Spielberg, is set for a December 2020 release.

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