Relativity Media has picked up distribution rights to Carlo Carlei’s cinematic take on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet starring Hailee Steinfeld.
A Sept. 6 release date has been set for the film, which shot early last year on location in Mantua Italy, and has been waiting for a U.S. distributor.
The trailer (below) surfaced in April and shows off a stellar cast with a mix of fresh and familiar faces including Steinfeld as Juliet, Douglass Booth (L.O.L) as Romeo, Paul Giamatti, Stellan Skarsgard, Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl) and Damian Lewis (Homeland).
With a cast like that, it’s hard to see why any studio would let the film sit without a release. Relativity has announced that Romeo and Juliet will have a limited release later this Summer.
Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellows adapted Shakespeare’s most revered tragic love story for the big screen.
Echo Lake Entertainment producer Doug Mankoff expressed excitement about Relativity’s involvement saying, “Relativity is the perfect company to release this generation’s Romeo and Juliet.”
The distributor is no stranger to classic updates, putting out last year’s Mirror Mirror, the reimagining of the Snow White fairy tale that found itself in competition with Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman.
This time around, Romeo and Juliet is the only Shakespearean tragedy on the block and should be helped, rather than threatened by, the release of Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing.
The last few times we saw our ill-fated lovers on the big screen, they were either in the form of animated garden gnomes (Gnomeo and Juliet) or angst-filled Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes (Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet).
From the looks of the trailer, Carlei and Fellows brought a traditional perspective to “this generation’s Romeo and Juliet,” reminiscent of the Zepherelli film that became a definitive representation in 1968.
Who knows, maybe 40 years from now, ninth-grade English students will be watching a 2013 classic.