Kids in fair Verona where we lay our tale, eh? What a handful. Disrespecting their families’ feuds, hooking up, getting into unsanctioned fights and then – spoiler alert for anyone not aware of the centuries-old play – offing themselves in some sort of romantic suicide pact. No manners, you see? Still, people keep adapting Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet for the screen and here comes the latest, courtesy of director Carlo Carlei and screenwriter Julian Fellowes. Check out the trailer below.
In this re-telling of the star-crossed lovers’ tale, True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld is Juliet with Douglas Booth is Romeo. We follow their feuding families and their growing attraction as the story spirals towards tragedy and… look… you can read the play. Or watch one of the many countless previous versions on stage or screen.
The latest version appears to strip things back to more traditional forms (no Baz Luhrmann-style cool factor here), which will please traditionalists but might not quite make it stand out unless the final big revelation is that it’s taking place on a dystopian future Earth where people are forced to re-enact Shakespeare’s plays or face vaporisation at the tentacles of their cruel alien overlords.
Still, Carlei has assembled a solid cast including Damian Lewis, Paul Giamatti, Stellan Skarsgard, Natascha McElhone, Ed Westwick, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Lesley Manville, so the acting standards should be high even if your English teacher makes you watch it. And so you should! It’s high time you kids got some culture, with your planking and your LOLCats and your digital watches and stuff. It’ll be out on July 26.