Network, All About Eve, West Side Story – a really good day’s Netflix queue as well as the latest entries on the resume of Belgian-born theater director Ivo van Hove. Tony-nominated for his direction of Broadway’s Network, the artistic director of the Toneelgroep Amsterdam has built a reputation for experimental…

Steven Spielberg's West Side Story is casting up with over 40 performers set as Sharks and Jets, the rival street gangs at the center of the musical's timeless love story. Leading the Jets as Riff will be Mike Faist, who is best known for originating roles in the Broadway productions of Dear Evan Hansen and Newsies…

On the eve of the Disney-Fox merger, Fox’s Steven Spielberg West Side Story has tapped Corey Stoll to play Lieutenant Schrank, the New York City detective charged with quelling civic unrest in his racially-torn precinct, and Brian dʼArcy James to play the iconic role of Sergeant Krupke, the cop whose beat includes the…

EXCLUSIVE: After auditioning more than 30K people from around the world, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story has found its Maria in fresh faced 17-year old New Jersey High School student Rachel Zegler who will make her film debut opposite Ansel Elgort as Tony. Rounding out the principal Shark roles are Broadway…

EXCLUSIVE: After winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing the role of Anita in 1961’s West Side Story, EGOT winner Rita Moreno will return to the next big-screen adaptation of the Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim lyric musical that Oscar winner Steven Spielberg is directing. In addition, Moreno will also…

When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way — and now we know who’ll play Tony in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Baby Driver star Ansel Elgort has danced into the role originated by Larry Kert on Broadway and played by Richard Beymer in the Oscar-winning 1961 movie. Inspired by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juli…

Tony Award-winning choreographer Justin Peck has joined the production team of Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story film. Peck, the resident choreographer and soloist dancer with the New York City Ballet, won a Tony this year for his choreography of Carousel, the Rodgers & Hammerstein Broadway revival directed by Jack O…

Director Ivo van Hove will stage a major new production of West Side Story for Broadway next season, with new choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. The revival, produced by Scott Rudin, will begin performances December 10, 2019, with an official opening night of February 6, 2020, at a theater to be…

A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit You know you are in the crux of Oscar season when you find yourself driving down the coast on a Thursday afternoon to host one of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s many, many awards-related events. That’s what I did when I hit the road…

West Side Story, one of the all-time biggest Oscar-winning films with 10 in 1961, christened the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences new series, Archival Revival – 25 Years Of The Academy Film Archive, which launched Monday night with the Robert Wise- and Jerome Robbins-directed classic. And if subsequent…

ANALYSIS: Even though the Robert Wise original musical West Side Story is about as sacred a cow movie as you are going to find, Fox has unlocked that movie title for a remake specifically because Steven Spielberg is interested in making it. No writer has been set yet and Spielberg hasn’t done anything more than…

Hollywood  has been busy this season celebrating the Academy Award nominees for Best Picture. Of 1961. Of course there has been lots of attention paid toward the nine nominees for Best Picture of 2011 too, but how many of them will we be talking about and still watching on big or little screens 50 years from now? Will…