West Side Story Movie (2021)

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Trivia

1. The songs "One Hand, One Heart" and "A Boy Like That/I Have a Love" were performed live on set by Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler on the former, and Ariana DeBose and Zegler on the latter. Sections of "Maria" were also sung live on set by Elgort, as per his request. All other songs were filmed to the more traditional playback technique. "Somewhere" was also sung live on set by Rita Moreno.
2. While she has played Maria in plenty of stage productions of "West Side Story", this is Rachel Zegler's first film role. Steven Spielberg credits her as the greatest Maria he's ever witnessed.
3. At one point, Rita Moreno said she wouldn't make a cameo in the movie, but eventually agreed to play the role of Valentina, which is a re-imagining of the character of Doc (she is Doc's widow).
4. John Williams was brought in to serve as music consultant for the film. Williams was piano soloist for the soundtrack of the 1961 version.
5. Mike Faist lost about 20 pounds (9 kg) to play Riff, inspired by real photos of young gang members during the 1950's that he discovered while researching his character.
6. Considering the relatively large 60-year time span between the original and this production, three actors who appeared in the 1961 release reprise different roles in this 2021 production, including, Rita Moreno, Harvey Evans and David Bean. Evans and Bean were both members of "The Jets" in the original, respectively playing Mouthpiece and Tiger.
7. The film is dedicated to Steven Spielberg's father Arnold Spielberg, who died in 2020, the year the film was initially supposed to be released.
8. This film marks the first time Steven Spielberg has directed a musical. Spielberg previously developed a semi-autobiographical musical film titled "Reel to Reel" in the early 1980s, but the project was eventually abandoned.
9. Released posthumously after lyricist Stephen Sondheim died on November 26, 2021, days before the world premiere. He did, however, get to see the final cut of the film and prefers this film to the 1961 film, as he told Stephen Colbert on the latter's late-night talk show.
10. This film's end credits sequence pays homage to the 1961 film's groundbreaking end credits sequence designed by Saul Bass, except that in this version, while following the same concept, the credits themselves are not literally presented as graffiti. In addition, the 1961 film's instrumental end credit suite is carried over to this film as well, but extended from 5 minutes to 9 minutes in order to fit the length of the credit roll following the main-on-end title portion, by incorporating "America," "Scherzo" and "Mambo" into the existing medley comprising of "Somewhere, "Tonight," "I Feel Pretty" and "Maria."
11. An anomaly with the brakes system of the New York City Subway has the lines screeching out the first three notes of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's "Somewhere" from West Side Story. This anomaly is intentionally featured in the film for the scene where Maria meets Tony in the Subway.
12. Screenwriter Tony Kushner has stated the film will be more in line with the original book by Arthur Laurents than the 1961 film adaptation.
13. According to a behind-the-scenes featurette of the film, Steven Spielberg explained why he always wanted to direct a motion picture adaptation of the original 1957 Broadway musical production: "I have been challenged by what would be the right musical to take on. And I could never forget my childhood. I was 10 years old when I first listened to the West Side Story album, and it never went away. I've been able to fulfill that dream and keep that promise that I made to myself: You must make West Side Story." He, then, went on to explain why the musical is even more topical in modern times than it was when the musical first premiered on Broadway: "Divisions between un-likeminded people is as old as time itself," Spielberg said. "And the divisions between the Sharks and the Jets in 1957, which inspired the musical, were profound. But not as divided as we find ourselves today. It turned out in the middle of the development of the script, things widened, which I think in a sense, sadly, made the story of those racial divides - not just territorial divides - more relevant to today's audience than perhaps it even was in 1957."
14. When casting this remake, Steven Spielberg insisted that all Latino characters be portrayed by real Latino actors.
15. The film follows the original song order of the stage musical with just two exceptions: Gee, Officer Krupke is moved to earlier (as the 1961 movie also did) and Cool (usually performed before the war council in the stage musical) is sung by Tony to Riff (rather than being sung by Riff to the Jets) The 1961 film placed Cool much later (after the rumble) and was performed by Ice - known as Diesel in the stage musical. The 2021 film changes that character back to Diesel, with a separate Jet, also named Ice, created for this film.
16. Naya Rivera campaigned and sent an audition tape in for the role of Anita. She had previously played this role (and sung the songs "America" and "A Boy Like That/I Have a Love") in Glee (2009), during Glee: The First Time (2011), during the school's performance of "West Side Story". However she sadly drowned back in the summer 2020.
17. According to Rachel Zegler, Spielberg instructed her to have "less fun dancing with Chino" because "Tony wouldn't stand a chance with you smiling like that."
18. On September 23rd, 2020, the film was delayed almost a whole year from December 18th, 2020 to December 10th, 2021, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
19. This is the second time Steven Spielberg has produced a remake of a film directed by Robert Wise. He previously produced The Haunting (1999). West Side Story (1961) also featured Russ Tamblyn.
20. Arthur Laurents, who wrote the original Broadway production's book, felt the 1961 film version was very flawed due to "bogus accents, bogus dialect, bogus costumes."
21. The film's December 10, 2021 release date comes one day before Rita Moreno's 90th birthday and eight days before Steven Spielberg's 75th birthday.
22. Ansel Elgort did his own climbing for the balcony scene. He tried to convince the production to not give him a safety harness, but was ultimately overruled.
23. Rachel Zegler's feature film debut.
24. Bernardo and Maria are given the surname Vasquez in this version. You can see it on the boxing poster in their apartment, advertising one of Bernardo's past fights.
25.Final film of Doreen Montalvo.

• Filming Location

  Paterson, New Jersey, USA

• Production Details

  20th Century Studios (as Twentieth Century Studios), Amblin Entertainment, Amblin Partners, TSG Entertainment (made in association with)

West Side Story Trailer

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