For the young Hailee Steinfeld, the Oscar-nominated star of “True Grit,” the world is her oyster. While Jennifer Lawrence has quickly turned Oscar glory into a lead role in a major franchise with “The Hunger Games,” Steinfeld hasn’t been in quite a rush to decide on what’s next. She, too, was briefly mentioned as a possible contender for a role in “The Hunger Games,” got attached to the tween “Memento”-like film “Forgotten” and was part of a Sleeping Beauty movie pitch that went around Hollywood, but no decisions had been made. But now, the young thesp looks booked in one of the oldest tales of them all.
THR reports that Steinfeld is in talks for a new big screen version of “Romeo & Juliet” that has a fresh script by celebrated scribe Julian Fellowes who wrote “Gosford Park” and the celebrated Brit series “Downton Abbey,” but also “The Tourist,” so the quality goes both ways.
This latest incarnation will be directed by Carlo Carlie who is probably best known for 1993’s “Flight of the Innocent,” but who also directed the 1995 ghost dog movie “Fluke” starring Samuel L. Jackson, Matthew Modine and Ron Perlman (we shit you not). We don’t know what to think about this.
Budgeted at $15 million, the film will shoot in Italy later this spring and it’s not known yet if it will keep the period setting or get updated with crunking or whatever producers do to make things more “hip” and “fly.” But seriously, do we need yet another “Romeo & Juliet” movie? The answer is no.